SBIR Phase I: Novel Infant Feeding System for Breastfeeding Support and Biofeedback Analysis

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的广泛影响将解决过早停止母乳喂养的主要原因。在全球范围内，这一问题造成82万名五岁以下儿童死亡，每年使美国在可预防的医疗费用上花费3 000多亿美元。通过创造一种婴儿喂养系统，设计用于无缝和无压力的母乳和奶瓶喂养，唯一的乳头是模仿母亲的形状，感觉和流动，该项目可以为家庭提供奶瓶到乳房的连续性，减少闭锁问题，同时促进母乳喂养。根据在客户发现过程中发现的市场需求，该项目将提供第一个奶瓶，该奶瓶将在母乳喂养过程中提供远程保健支持，并通过远程粪便采样和微生物组数据驱动的见解提供免疫生物群系反馈，以支持家庭如何在孩子出生后的头三年提供最佳喂养。通过将远程医疗和免疫生物群落检测服务相结合，这种综合模式改善了预防保健的可及性，同时提供了生物反馈见解，每年可为美国经济节省100亿美元。这个拟议的项目解决了全球1140亿美元的婴儿和女性科技行业的空白，92%的父母在给婴儿喂奶的两年内无法恢复母乳喂养。产假结束后，大多数妇女在使用奶瓶3个月后不再继续母乳喂养。在医院里，早产儿总是暴露在乳头不自然的快速乳汁中，导致婴儿缺氧、心动过缓和长期的神经缺陷。这一问题增加了诊疗费和住院时间，每年给医院造成大约5 000万美元的损失。提出的技术将模仿独特的母体乳头几何形状和进化的乳汁流动，特别是关于动态婴儿哺乳压力。初始实验室测试的技术目标是确保原型在形状和体积流量、硅胶厚度、介质密度以及专有的动态阀隔膜方面与母亲的乳头非常相似。最初的非劣效性测试将衡量该项目是否减少了母亲出院后的奶嘴问题，减少了早产儿的并发症，以及在为期一个季度的研究中，与标准乳头流量相关的每名早产儿每日3,000美元的医院费用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will address the primary cause of the premature cessation of breastfeeding. Globally, this issue causes 820,000 deaths in children under the age of five and costs the United States over $300 billion in preventable medical costs annually. By creating an infant feeding system designed for seamless and stress-free breast and bottle feeding, with the only nipple that is researched and designed to mimic a mother’s shape, feel, and flow, this project can offer families bottle to breast continuity-reducing latching problems while promoting breastfeeding. In accordance with the market demand found in customer discovery, this project will supply the first bottle to come with tele-health support for the breastfeeding journey and immuno-biome feedback with remote stool sampling and microbiome data driven insights to support families on how to feed their child best during the first three years of life. By combining remote tele-health and immuno-biome testing services, this integrative model improves access to preventative care while providing bio-feedback insights that can save the U.S. economy an additional $10B annually. The proposed project addresses the gap in the $114 billion global baby and femtech industry, where 92% of parents who introduce a baby to a bottle are unable to return to breastfeeding for the recommended two years. The majority of women do not continue breastfeeding after 3 months after introducing a bottle when maternity leave ends. In the hospital, preterm infants are invariably exposed to nipples unnaturally fast milk flow, resulting in infant hypoxia, bradycardia, and long term neurological defects. This problem costs hospitals approximately $50 million annually by increasing consultation and length of stay costs. The proposed technology will mimic unique maternal nipple geometry and evolutionary milk flow specifically with regard to dynamic infant suckling pressures. The technical objectives of initial lab testing are to ensure the prototypes closely replicate the mother’s nipple, in terms of shape and volumetric flow rate, the silicone thickness, the media density, and the proprietary, dynamic valve diaphragm. Initial non-inferiority testing will measure if the project reduces latching problems for mothers after discharge, decreases complications for preterm patients, and the daily $3,000 per preterm infant cost to hospitals associated with flow rate of standard nipples in a quarter-long study.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.