Got data? Breastfeeding device measures babies’ milk intake in real time
May 14, 2025
While breastfeeding has many benefits for a parent and their baby, it has one major drawback: It’s incredibly difficult to know how much milk the baby is consuming.
To take the guesswork out of breastfeeding, an interdisciplinary team led by John Rogers have developed a new wearable device that can provide clinical-grade, continuous monitoring of breast milk consumption.
The unobtrusive device softly and comfortably wraps around the breast of a nursing parent during breastfeeding and wirelessly transmits data to a smartphone or tablet. Parents can then view a live graphical display of how much milk their baby has consumed in real time.
By eliminating uncertainty, the device can provide peace of mind for parents during their baby’s first days and weeks. In particular, the new technology could help reduce parental anxiety and improve clinical management of nutrition for vulnerable babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).