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The PedsMrkt Quarterly Newsletter is a great way to keep up to date on the latest pediatric innovations, get to know other organizations in the pediatric ecosystem and find opportunities to engage in pediatric innovation discussions.

Watch Interview with Sarah Habib

Despite advances across healthcare, infant feeding has remained one of the least measurable aspects of care. Parents and clinicians have historically relied on observation, instinct, and trial and error rather than objective data. This is especially true in breastfeeding, where there is no direct way to see how much milk a baby is receiving.

Even today, accurately measuring breast milk intake remains a challenge, with current methods often too complex or impractical for routine use. [ajcn.nutrition.org]

 

Where the need became clear

The inspiration to address this gap did not come from a single moment. It came from a consistent pattern observed across both hospitals and homes.

In the NICU, feeding is one of the most critical milestones in an infant’s journey. Clinicians rely on feeding performance to guide decisions about progression and discharge readiness. At the same time, they have historically had limited tools to objectively assess how well a baby is feeding.

This matters because feeding ability is directly tied to outcomes. For preterm infants, delays in achieving full oral feeding can extend the length of hospitalization and complicate the transition home. [pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Both at the bedside and at home clinicians and parents are making care decisions with incomplete data.

 

Reframing feeding as a developmental signal

Traditionally, feeding has been viewed as a measure of intake. But for clinicians, it represents much more.

Feeding reflects coordination, strength, endurance, and neurological development. It is a window into how an infant is growing and adapting in real time. Research shows that feeding challenges are common in preterm infants and are often linked to broader developmental factors. [research.aota.org]

Despite its importance, however, feeding assessment remains inconsistent. A recent review highlights the lack of standardized, comprehensive tools for evaluating breastfeeding and feeding performance in clinical settings [journals.sagepub.com]

This disconnect frames feeding as isolated events instead of a continuous developmental journey.

Building a system around the full feeding experience

The nfant Thrive Feeding System was created to address this gap by introducing objective measurement and actionable insights into infant feeding.

From the beginning, the vision was not limited to a single feeding method. It was to create a comprehensive system that could support feeding across different scenarios, including bottle feeding, breastfeeding, and the transitions between them.

The system’s origins in the NICU shaped its design.
Clinicians needed a way to better understand feeding performance in premature infants and those experiencing feeding challenges. At the same time, families needed a way to carry that understanding beyond the hospital into everyday life.

The expansion to include Thrive Breast represents an important step in that journey. By extending objective insight into breastfeeding, the system can now support a more connected view of feeding across both breast and bottle.

This matters because feeding does not happen in silos. It evolves. A system that captures the full picture helps families and clinicians stay aligned as that evolution unfolds.

What changes when feeding becomes measurable?

For families, especially those who are breastfeeding, feeding can feel uncertain. Unlike bottle feeding, there is no clear visibility into how much milk is being transferred during a session.

Objective insight changes that experience. Instead of relying only on observation, families can begin to understand feeding patterns over time.

The most common feedback reflects a simple shift: more clarity leads to more confidence.

Reducing uncertainty during this early stage can have a meaningful impact on how parents experience feeding and how supported they feel in their decisions.

For clinicians, feeding data provides additional context that is difficult to capture through observation alone.

When feeding performance can be measured and monitored:

  • Patterns become easier to identify
  • Challenges can be recognized earlier
  • Interventions can be more personalized

Nutrition and feeding quality play a critical role in growth
and development, particularly in vulnerable populations such as preterm
infants. [advances.n...rition.org]

By adding objective insight to clinical judgment, providers can make more informed decisions about progression, support, and readiness for discharge.

The challenge of building accurate, usable technology

Creating a solution for infant feeding is not straightforward.

Feeding is dynamic. It varies from baby to baby and changes with development. Any technology designed to measure feeding must work across different feeding styles, environments, and stages of growth.

At the same time, it cannot interfere with the feeding experience itself.

Advances in biosensor and wearable technologies have begun to make this possible. Researchers are exploring ways to capture milk transfer and feeding behaviors through noninvasive methods that maintain comfort and usability. [frontiersin.org]

Validation is essential in this process. Technologies must be developed in close collaboration with clinicians, feeding specialists, and researchers to ensure accuracy, safety, and real-world applicability.

The result is a system that continues to improve as it is used across hospitals and homes.

From hospital to home

Today, feeding insights are being used in both clinical and home settings.

In the NICU, clinicians use feeding data to better understand performance and support care decisions for infants who need closer monitoring.

At home, families use the same insights to track feeding patterns across breast and bottle, helping them build confidence during an otherwise uncertain time.

Bringing these insights forward in a continuous way creates a connected system that allows understanding to carry across the full care journey.

 

A new level of understanding

Healthcare is becoming more connected, more personalized, and more data driven. Many aspects of health are now tracked and understood in greater detail than ever before.

Infant feeding has lagged behind, even though it is one of the most important activities during early life and a key indicator of infant care, but that is starting to change.

Data driven approaches in maternal and infant health are showing how continuous monitoring and better insight can support earlier intervention and improved outcomes. [ijarpr.com]

Bringing objective insight into feeding allows both families and clinicians to move beyond assumptions to a more complete understanding of how a baby is feeding, growing, and developing.

For parents, that means greater confidence during a critical time.

For clinicians, it means better information to guide care.

And for infants, it means a stronger, more supported start.

 

Sources and further reading

 

Testimonials


"Over the previous two years, PedsMrkt has been one of the keys to building awareness, preference and demand for SMöLTAP, by bringing our infant lumbar puncture positioning solution to the attention of pediatric clinicians, nurses and procurement leaders who might otherwise have limited visibility into emerging medical devices. As a platform purpose-built for the pediatric healthcare space, PedsMrkt reaches exactly the audience that matters most for a product like ours. Through PedsMrkt, SMöLTAP has been surfaced to decision-makers and end users at children's hospitals and pediatric departments across the country — a reach that is difficult and costly to replicate through traditional sales channels alone."

Robert Cooper, CEO Smoltap

"Having one central place that is known as not only a two-way marketplace, but a central point for discussion around innovation, for pushing the boundaries, whether that’s everything from policy to workforce management, and all sorts of things. It’s a “rising tide lifts all boats” sort of thing, like we are all in it together. I think PedsMrkt has done a really great job of bringing awareness to the space and bringing all of the players into one area and thinking about collaboration. How can we actually do a 1 + 1 equals 10? How can we bring together all the players, the ones going through all the pain points and co-create something or collaborate in a way that actually advances health outcomes for all kids everywhere."

Christie Sander, COO Kismet

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