An infant must meet several criteria before being discharged from the hospital, including stable vital signs, maintaining a consistent body temperature, and getting enough nutrition – ideally from a breast or bottle. But what happens when an infant struggles to feed?

Two neonatal clinicians and entrepreneurs, Michael Detmer and Rebekah Gossom, founded a business, Louisville-based Innovative Therapeutix, and developed a solution: LullaFeed, a detachable device that connects to the bottom of a baby bottle and supports infants with feeding difficulties by playing soothing lullabies recorded in the voice of a parent or guardian.

“Lullabies have a repeating refrain or chorus and babies like that because it’s predictable and they can expect what is coming next and there’s nothing in the form of the song that is “alerting to them,” Detmer said. “It allows the baby to settle in and not be alarmed by what’s to come next.” 

Lullabies are soft, steady, and slow at 60-70 BPM which is the resting heart rate of an adult and the average suck rate of a newborn. They also have a descending soothing melodic line with very limited instrumentation which babies prefer because it is least alerting. 

“We found that the babies were responding to music and would actually change their suck behavior on the breast or bottle and become entrained to the music,” he said. “Entrained meaning, they would synchronize their sucking to the tempo of the music.”

With the concept of LullaFeed proved as a solution in the hospital NICU by Detmer singing lullabies during feeding, Detmer and Gossom knew their next step would be to help more caretakers by creating an actual product for at home feeding.

“Parents need something like this to help them continue giving this care once they get home,” Detmer said. “I asked myself, ‘Why don’t we build something that pairs with feeding?’ and we sat down with a napkin and planned out what we could build.”

After many prototypes through a “fail fast” method, the neonatal entrepreneurs found the sweet spot for their design. The product contains multiple sensors used to detect infant feeding patterns and when feeding is detected, the parent’s pre-recorded voice plays back to the infant via an embedded speaker. 

LullaFeed pairs with a companion app that allows users to record themselves singing a lullaby at the appropriate tempo. The app also tracks feeding data, enabling parents to monitor how much their baby consumes over time.

Gossom said LullaFeed is important to her because she knows first hand the impact it will have on infants who are struggling with eating. 

 

“I have seen the power of music work like magic on the patients I work with- music helps calm and organize babies so they feed better and it helps relax parents during these stressful times too,” she said. 

LullaFeed currently has a waitlist of almost 400 people wanting to purchase their product. But who makes up these people?

“Parents are interested, but also those that are looking for baby shower gifts (family and friends) and two-thirds of the parents that have signed up don’t even have a baby with a feeding issue,” Detmer said. “They’re looking for something to support their infant’s feeding in new environments or by a different feeder, such as day care.”

Funding and What’s Next for LullaFeed

The company has raised a total of $1.26 million in grants, through the crowdfund investment platform Wefunder, and from other investors including Render Capital, Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation (KSTC)/Keyhorse Capital, and CATO Neonatal Innovations, Inc.

The suggested retail price for LullaFeed is expected to be between $80 and $100, though it has not been finalized, Detmer said. The company plans to bring the product to market this summer, with a limited test launch to select customer groups earlier in the spring.

They also plan to initially sell its products on its website and through Amazon, with future availability on baby registry sites and potentially on e-commerce platforms for big-box retailers. In addition to LullaFeed, Detmer said the goal is to help infants grow into the best versions of themselves through multiple products, while supporting parents in raising strong, healthy children.

“We will need more investors after going to market this summer  to scale this and to expand to grow the business,” Detmer said. “In terms of longer term plans, we have several product ideas in addition to this which are in our roadmap to develop.”