Pacifers that play lullabies sung by mothers improve feeding habits in preemies

Pacifiers that play recorded lullabies sung by the child's mother can accelerate the feeding habits in preemies and shorten their hospital stay.

"Premature babies have to figure out how to coordinate sucking, swallowing their own saliva and breathing. It's an incredibly difficult task for babies, and it's tiring," Dr. Nathalie Maitre, director of the neonatal intensive-care unit follow-up clinics at Vanderbilt University Children's Hospital, told HealthDay.

Musical pacifiers are often used to improve the suction abilities of newborns during their time in a neonatal intensive care unit, with earlier studies suggesting that a mother's voice can also be used to promote heart and lung stability and improve sleep in preemies.

The researchers recruited 94 premature babies, aged 34 to 36 weeks, for their study. All were exposed to regular musical pacifiers and breastfeeding, while half received additional 15-minute music sessions for five days that included a special pacifier device that played a lullaby recorded by mothers.

Premature babies in both groups gained equal weight during the five-day study period, but those treated with special pacifiers developed faster feeding habits compared to their peers. They took in 2 milliliters of fortified breast milk per minute compared to less than 1 milliliter in the control group, Reuters reports.

The presence of a mother's voice also decreased the need for feeding tubes for preemies, with the lullaby receivers spending an average of 31 days using a tube, compared to their peers' 38 days

"A mother's voice is a powerful auditory cue," Maitre said in a news release. "Babies know and love their mother's voice. It has proven to be the perfect incentive to help motivate these babies."

The researchers emphasized that melodies need to be simple, repetitive and within one octave range, since any music beyond that may not register in the babies' brains.