An innovative device to feed babies in NICU

Neonatal Feedrail is a simple, easy to operate hospital/ICU equipment which can help in gavage feeding of Neonatal (Just-born or Premature) babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Units.

This concept was envisaged by Dr. Srinivas Murthy (Professor, Pediatrics, JSS University and Hospital, Mysuru) to ease the work load on the staff nurses at JSS Hospital and utilize their time more productively. Ideas Unlimited engineered it into a prototype. We have developed two prototypes of this device so far.

JSS University (Part of Jagadguru Shri Shivarathreeshavara Math of Suttur) is the primary sponsor who provided the grant for the development, patenting and clinical trials and other formal processes required for the approval of this product.

Background to this product

Feeding neonatal babies is a labourious, time consuming, delicate task which requires a degree of skill with the nurse doing the job. Babies have to be fed a few mililiters of milk every two hours average and round the clock. The rate of feed is very slow and assisted by gravity.Feedrail is an attempt to automate the laborious and manual parts of the process, bring consistency and stability in feeding.

The Feedrail unit has a tiny tilt-bed (suited for use with neonatal babies) two positions: Sleep, Feeding position. This allows hands free operation for the nurse. Feedrail enables nurse to focus on monitoring babies rather than doing the manual tasks involved in the feeding of these babies.

Also feedrail enables a nurse to feed multiple babies using multiple units and instead focus on monitoring the feeding of babies.

The unit is designed to be easily operated by any nurse with a few minutes of orientation on the usage of the machine. Machine has special sensors to detect any movement of the feeding catheter and will raise an alert. Machine once started, can switch off automatically on finishing the job and can be rewound and kept for next baby feeding.