New Pacifier Teaches Premature Babies to Suck

An innovative medical device for premature babies who have not yet developed the breathe-suck-swallow reflex helps them learn nonnutritive sucking (NNS), which is critical for breathing, feeding, self-comforting, and physical and neurologic growth.

The Pacifier Activated Lullaby (PAL) device stimulates NNS and organized breathe-suck-swallow activity through a pressure transducer system that provides individual lullaby music or voice feedback to educate them into a correct “suck” technique. The device takes advantage of a baby’s natural appetite for music, and uses the lullaby therapy to stimulate NNS and assist in developing the rhythmic oral patterns that babies need to use to feed and breathe.


The device uses a specially wired pacifier and speaker to provide musical reinforcement every time a baby sucks on it correctly, helping them to quickly learn the muscle movements needed to suck, and ultimately feed. On average, PAL can reduce the length of a premature infant’s hospital stay by five days. The PAL was developed by researchers at Florida State University (FSU; Tallahassee, USA), and is manufactured by Powers Device Technologies (St. Johns, FL, USA). The pacifier has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“It’s amazing to watch how much quicker our babies are able to learn the sucking motion after they have used PAL,” said Terry Stevens, a neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) nurse at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (TMH), where clinical studies have shown that infants will increase their sucking rates up to 2.5 times more than infants not exposed to the musical reinforcement. “They are ready to eat sooner, they go home from the hospital earlier, they tolerate their feedings better; it’s just a phenomenal improvement overall.”

In utero, NNS begins at 28 weeks, but is not fully developed until weeks 32-34; when babies are born pre-term, this development is abruptly stopped. The survival of premature babies relies upon them being taught how to suck productively and develop the breathe-suck-swallow reflect outside of the womb, but it requires the extreme coordination of several muscle groups. Without NNS, these babies do not know how to feed, and often lack the ability to achieve the levels of quiet, nonstress, and deep sleep that they need to continue normal neurological development.

Related Links:
Florida State University
Powers Device Technologies