More research on music with preemies

Hospitalization can stress out anyone, but especially severely premature babies, who are born neurologically immature. Florida State University music therapist Jayne Standley and her colleagues are reducing the trauma and speeding the pace of the infants' progression with a simple tool: a customized pacifier and a round of lullabies. [paragraph] Babies born before the 34th week have not yet developed the crucial "suck-swallow-breathe" response required in feeding. To help preemies along, Standley and her colleagues invented a pressure-sensitive pacifier wired to a tape player that rewards hearty suckling with a lullaby. Researchers had previously found that playing lullabies noticeably reduces premature infants' hospital stays. Songs helped here too. Babies trained with the musical pacifier suckled 2.4 times as fast as those denied such reinforcement. Some drained an entire bottle of milk after just 15 minutes of conditioning. "We thought it was our imagination-the response seemed too dramatic," Standley recalls. [paragraph] Ohmeda Medical in Columbia, Maryland, will begin selling a wireless version of the musical pacifier to neonatal intensive care units later this year. by Rebecca Hirschfield
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