
Is baby getting enough breastmilk? New device helps moms learn
The new device — the result of a collaboration between pediatricians and engineers — is a small wireless set of electrodes worn on the mother's breast that measures the amount of milk expressed during a feeding.
Although it still in development and is not yet available to the public, Julia Seitchik, who left the hospital with her first child weighing less than 5 pounds, was able to give it a test run with her third child and called it a 'game-changer.'
She was committed to breastfeeding her first infant, but there was 'no room for error.' If her baby lost more than 10% of her body weight, the newborn would have to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit.
'You have no idea what they're getting. You have no idea of whether milk's coming out, because especially in the beginning it's not like it's flowing,' Seitchik said. She hired a lactation consultant, who would weigh the baby before and after a feeding to make sure she was getting enough milk — a cumbersome process that required she have a tiny scale at home.
'There was a lot of anxiety around it,' she said. 'My husband was like, 'We should just formula feed her!''
This is often the moment that breastfeeding gets derailed, said Dr. Jennifer Wicks, an attending physician in the NICU at Lurie Children's Hospital and instructor at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, who was breastfeeding her own child during the study she was involved with. When she used to work in a pediatric practice, Wicks said, parents would 'come in and just be panicked that their baby isn't getting enough, and that they weren't producing enough milk. It's really just a complete unknown oftentimes.'
The anxiety itself can decrease the flow of milk, and many mothers would start pumping and introducing formula at this point, which can further reduce milk production, said Wicks. Ultimately, many simply give up on breastfeeding.
Just 27% of infants in the U.S. breastfeed exclusively through 6 months of age. Healthy People 2030, a Health and Human Services Department initiative that sets national health targets, set a goal of 42%, an acknowledgment that breastfeeding can be challenging and not all women are able to do it for a host of reasons.
'If we can get moms even a little closer to that goal it will make us feel like we've at least partially been successful in this mission,' said Wicks.
The creation of the tiny device began four years ago with a tour of the NICU by a team of engineers from Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering dedicated to solving questions affecting patient care.
The pediatricians wanted help with a dilemma: Moms wanted to know how much milk their babies were drinking, but there was no way to know. And in the NICU, the sickest babies wouldn't even be able to breastfeed safely unless they could measure the exact amount of milk they were consuming.
'They asked us if we could cook up a solution that would address that need,' said John Rogers, who leads the engineering team.
They got to work.
The team started by trying to create a device that could be worn by the baby. They tried mounting sensors on the infant's chin and chest to test if the amount of milk a baby drinks could be measured through swallowing, but it didn't work. They tried to measure properties of the stomach of the baby, but it was too hard to isolate the effect of the milk. So they switched to measuring the mother.
'We went down so many dead ends that we almost gave up,' said Rogers. Finally, Rogers made a fortuitous visit to his own physician, where he had his BMI checked using a small device that sends electrical signals through the body to measure the amount of fat. Could the same technology be used to measure milk in the breast, he wondered?
And so the breastfeeding device was born: a small wireless set of electrodes placed on the breast that measure the change in electrical currents of the breast tissue to determine how much milk is being expressed. The data are transmitted via Bluetooth to a phone, where parents can watch the consumption data appear over the course of a feeding.
Researchers tested the device on 12 pumping and breastfeeding mothers and published the results in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. Rogers said feeding is rarely predictable. Sometimes, it starts slow and then builds. Other times, the baby gets a flood of milk in the beginning, and then slows down as a feeding goes on.
'Being able to watch it on the phone provides a lot of reassurance and guidance,' said Rogers, giving the mother information on how long she needs to feed, and whether she might need to reposition the baby.
It also informed parents and physicians on whether the mother might need to change her breastfeeding routine.
'There are some moms who produce enough to feed the whole neighborhood but others do not,' said Dr. Craig Garfield, an attending physician at Lurie Children's Hospital and professor at the Feinberg School of Medicine. 'If you knew a mom wasn't producing enough, you could have her feed first and then pump after to increase her supply.'
Seitchik, who was part of the trial and used the device at home while pumping milk for her son, praised it.
'In this data driven world, to just to kind of go blindly into these situations feels like a little funny,' she sad. 'It feels like we should know how much our kids are eating.'
For decades, new technology was slow to develop for new mothers and babies in the postpartum period.
'It's not a large market share opportunity, so there's not a lot of venture capital funding, but also it's a really compelling need,' said Rogers. 'It's a great space for academics to come in and try to fill that gap.'
The private market has been hesitant to invest in postpartum devices 'because it's a very short period of time that these things get used, and sometimes they can be quite expensive,' said Christina Farr, an investor with Scrub Capital and author of the health tech newsletter Second Opinion. Often, a woman will buy a device like a wearable breast pump and then sell it online or give it to a friend.
'Then you just lost a customer,' said Farr.
But investors are beginning to take note of the opportunities in women's health after a few breakout successes, including Maven, a women's health startup valued at $1.7 billion, and Midi, which is focused on menopause.
The postpartum period is also ripe for development, said Farr. 'There's so much desperation and need at this moment, and very little that has really changed in the past number of decades to support women.'
This article is part of The Times' early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to latimes.com/earlyed.
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Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
Is baby getting enough breastmilk? New device helps moms learn
A group of university researchers at Northwestern — including a nursing mother — have come up with a way to ease one of the most anxiety-producing dilemmas of early breastfeeding: How much milk is the baby consuming? The new device — the result of a collaboration between pediatricians and engineers — is a small wireless set of electrodes worn on the mother's breast that measures the amount of milk expressed during a feeding. Although it still in development and is not yet available to the public, Julia Seitchik, who left the hospital with her first child weighing less than 5 pounds, was able to give it a test run with her third child and called it a 'game-changer.' She was committed to breastfeeding her first infant, but there was 'no room for error.' If her baby lost more than 10% of her body weight, the newborn would have to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. 'You have no idea what they're getting. You have no idea of whether milk's coming out, because especially in the beginning it's not like it's flowing,' Seitchik said. She hired a lactation consultant, who would weigh the baby before and after a feeding to make sure she was getting enough milk — a cumbersome process that required she have a tiny scale at home. 'There was a lot of anxiety around it,' she said. 'My husband was like, 'We should just formula feed her!'' This is often the moment that breastfeeding gets derailed, said Dr. Jennifer Wicks, an attending physician in the NICU at Lurie Children's Hospital and instructor at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, who was breastfeeding her own child during the study she was involved with. When she used to work in a pediatric practice, Wicks said, parents would 'come in and just be panicked that their baby isn't getting enough, and that they weren't producing enough milk. It's really just a complete unknown oftentimes.' The anxiety itself can decrease the flow of milk, and many mothers would start pumping and introducing formula at this point, which can further reduce milk production, said Wicks. Ultimately, many simply give up on breastfeeding. Just 27% of infants in the U.S. breastfeed exclusively through 6 months of age. Healthy People 2030, a Health and Human Services Department initiative that sets national health targets, set a goal of 42%, an acknowledgment that breastfeeding can be challenging and not all women are able to do it for a host of reasons. 'If we can get moms even a little closer to that goal it will make us feel like we've at least partially been successful in this mission,' said Wicks. The creation of the tiny device began four years ago with a tour of the NICU by a team of engineers from Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering dedicated to solving questions affecting patient care. The pediatricians wanted help with a dilemma: Moms wanted to know how much milk their babies were drinking, but there was no way to know. And in the NICU, the sickest babies wouldn't even be able to breastfeed safely unless they could measure the exact amount of milk they were consuming. 'They asked us if we could cook up a solution that would address that need,' said John Rogers, who leads the engineering team. They got to work. The team started by trying to create a device that could be worn by the baby. They tried mounting sensors on the infant's chin and chest to test if the amount of milk a baby drinks could be measured through swallowing, but it didn't work. They tried to measure properties of the stomach of the baby, but it was too hard to isolate the effect of the milk. So they switched to measuring the mother. 'We went down so many dead ends that we almost gave up,' said Rogers. Finally, Rogers made a fortuitous visit to his own physician, where he had his BMI checked using a small device that sends electrical signals through the body to measure the amount of fat. Could the same technology be used to measure milk in the breast, he wondered? And so the breastfeeding device was born: a small wireless set of electrodes placed on the breast that measure the change in electrical currents of the breast tissue to determine how much milk is being expressed. The data are transmitted via Bluetooth to a phone, where parents can watch the consumption data appear over the course of a feeding. Researchers tested the device on 12 pumping and breastfeeding mothers and published the results in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. Rogers said feeding is rarely predictable. Sometimes, it starts slow and then builds. Other times, the baby gets a flood of milk in the beginning, and then slows down as a feeding goes on. 'Being able to watch it on the phone provides a lot of reassurance and guidance,' said Rogers, giving the mother information on how long she needs to feed, and whether she might need to reposition the baby. It also informed parents and physicians on whether the mother might need to change her breastfeeding routine. 'There are some moms who produce enough to feed the whole neighborhood but others do not,' said Dr. Craig Garfield, an attending physician at Lurie Children's Hospital and professor at the Feinberg School of Medicine. 'If you knew a mom wasn't producing enough, you could have her feed first and then pump after to increase her supply.' Seitchik, who was part of the trial and used the device at home while pumping milk for her son, praised it. 'In this data driven world, to just to kind of go blindly into these situations feels like a little funny,' she sad. 'It feels like we should know how much our kids are eating.' For decades, new technology was slow to develop for new mothers and babies in the postpartum period. 'It's not a large market share opportunity, so there's not a lot of venture capital funding, but also it's a really compelling need,' said Rogers. 'It's a great space for academics to come in and try to fill that gap.' The private market has been hesitant to invest in postpartum devices 'because it's a very short period of time that these things get used, and sometimes they can be quite expensive,' said Christina Farr, an investor with Scrub Capital and author of the health tech newsletter Second Opinion. Often, a woman will buy a device like a wearable breast pump and then sell it online or give it to a friend. 'Then you just lost a customer,' said Farr. But investors are beginning to take note of the opportunities in women's health after a few breakout successes, including Maven, a women's health startup valued at $1.7 billion, and Midi, which is focused on menopause. The postpartum period is also ripe for development, said Farr. 'There's so much desperation and need at this moment, and very little that has really changed in the past number of decades to support women.' This article is part of The Times' early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to


Chicago Tribune
5 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Heidi Stevens: Years after his death, Hinsdale boy's legacy of kindness leads the way
At the end of every school year, Rob and Nora Tonn show up at Hinsdale Central High School and give away scholarships to graduating student athletes who are kind. Maybe the athletes are also fast and maybe they also won a lot and maybe they're going on to play their sport in college. But also, maybe not. 'We ask for nominations from coaches,' Rob Tonn said, 'and we say 'Tell us about the kid who reminds you of Brooks.'' Brooks is their son. He died Dec. 1, 2017, from rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that forms in the body's soft tissue. He was 10 years old. This spring, he would have graduated alongside the other kids at Hinsdale Central. Instead, his classmates — even the ones who never met him — honored him with turquoise ribbons on their gowns. This fall, he should be heading to college. Instead, seven of his classmates will start their next chapter with scholarships in his name, spreading what he stood for: Kindness. Friendship. Radical, resilient, invincible joy. The summer of 2017, when he and his dad were taking the 7 a.m. Metra from Hinsdale to Chicago for regular rounds of chemo, Brooks played 57 baseball games. 'One game, he had chemo that morning, got to baseball, threw up in the bushes, went in and played,' Nora Tonn told me the first time I met her family. 'That's the day he hit a grand slam,' Nancy Keenan, Nora's mom, added. 'His teammates carried him off the field on their shoulders.' Brooks also played football for the Hinsdale Falcons. He walked up to his coach on the first day of practice and said, 'Hey! I'm one of the quarterbacks.' His coach said, 'Is that right?' One day all the Falcons gathered at a player's house and filled the boy's living room. Then-Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald showed up on the TV screen with a message he recorded for Brooks. 'We're so inspired by you and your toughness and your grit and your ability to persevere and fight through tough times,' Fitzgerald said. Afterward, the team headed to the backyard and shaved their heads. They wanted to match Brooks, whose hair had fallen out from chemo. They couldn't cure his cancer. But they made sure he wasn't fighting it alone. Two years after his death, Nora and Rob Tonn launched Brooks Strong, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with two goals: to fund pediatric cancer research and to cover the costs of youth sports for kids with cancer, whose parents are often struggling to cover medical bills and don't have the money for lessons and team fees and equipment. In 2020, they gave their first grant to a boy named Dylan Provenzano. Dylan and Brooks had met in the hospital when Dylan was 12. He was diagnosed with cancer a month after Brooks was diagnosed. They both loved baseball. When Dylan was 15, his mom, Sam Provenzano, learned about Brooks Strong and applied for — and received — a grant. The money covered Dylan's equipment and six months of travel baseball. 'He's so happy, and we can breathe,' Provenzano told me when she first got the news. 'We're forever indebted to them. Anyone who makes your kid happy, you owe them the world.' Dylan went on to play baseball at Carthage College. Over the years, the Tonns added $1,500 scholarships for graduating student athletes to the mix. It's another way to honor Brooks, they said. It's another reason to talk about him. 'You get so fearful that people will forget him,' Nora Tonn said. 'You know, people move on. But they haven't.' The day the Tonns handed out this year's scholarships, Rob Tonn read aloud letters about each kid. The coaches wrote them, explaining how the athletes exemplified what Brooks was all about. 'The fact that some of his friends were the ones nominated,' Rob Tonn said. 'That says something, right?' It says a lot of things. It says Brooks' kindness planted a seed. It says that seed keeps growing. Through his parents' hard work to honor him and stay close to him and make sure other kids get a chance to play (to play!), it keeps growing. I checked in with Keenan, Brooks' grandmother, a few days ago. 'He keeps doing so much good,' she told me. 'Even in his death.' Showing us the way. 'You have to look for the bright lights,' Keenan said. 'And there are plenty.' That's how we see our way through the dark.


Chicago Tribune
7 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago creating index to identify neighborhoods most vulnerable to heat waves
City officials, residents and researchers gathered at Columbus Park in the Austin neighborhood Tuesday night to remember the deadly heat wave 30 years ago — and to plan how to prevent future heat deaths. From July 12 to 15 in 1995, the heat index soared above 120 degrees, killing 739 people in the deadliest natural disaster in Illinois history. But the risk of death wasn't the same for all residents — most of the victims lived in neighborhoods on the South and West sides, according to data from the Cook County medical examiner. 'During the 1995 heat wave, it became abundantly clear that environmental crises are never just about the weather,' said Mayor Brandon Johnson. 'In fact, they are more about equity and access and justice.' Today, residents of these neighborhoods — where historic redlining and unequal investment by city government have often occurred — are still statistically more likely to experience poverty, air pollution and deadly diseases like cancer. These factors can put people at greater risk of sickness or death during extreme heat waves, according to a team of researchers from Northwestern University who presented at the event. The team, the Defusing Disasters Working Group, compiled data on citywide heat deaths to produce Chicago's first heat vulnerability index. The tool shows which Chicago neighborhoods are at the highest risk during heat waves, based on not only their history of heat-related deaths but also on several other factors, including demographics, land use and air conditioning access. This initial version of the map shows a band of neighborhoods stretching from Chatham and Englewood in the south to Austin and Portage Park farther north where heat vulnerability is the highest. Neighborhoods closer to Lake Michigan tended to have lower scores, while those farther inland often had higher scores. The group is also surveying Chicagoans on what services they most want to see from the city during heat waves, which they'll use to inform policy recommendations for future heat waves. 'As a disaster responder, I can take a look at that map and disaster response plan, and say, 'Where might I want to focus my efforts? How does that help me identify my patients earlier?'' said Jennifer Chan, a Northwestern professor and team member. So far, the top responses that residents have voted for include offering water at bus and train stops, providing more emergency shelters, and prioritizing parks and other green spaces. The city has faced criticism in recent years for its emergency response plans during heat waves. Though Chicago's Office of Emergency Management advertised that over 280 cooling centers were open during a recent heat wave in June, the Tribune found that almost half of those centers were sprinklers and spray features that were running at parks. Many cooling centers are stationed at city buildings that don't remain open beyond their regular business hours, and none of them are open overnight. During Tuesday's event, as city officials shivered in the blasting air conditioning at the Columbus Park Refectory, residents nearby in Austin blew up inflatable pools and sold cold drinks on street corners to keep themselves cool as the heat index soared into the high 90s. Rachel Williams, a Roseland resident who spoke on a panel about heat vulnerability after Johnson's speech, said the city also needs to invest in cooling centers that aren't just city-run buildings. Many people might feel safer seeking shelter at a place they're familiar with, like churches or schools, than at police stations, she said. 'Most Black and Brown neighborhoods have a plethora of churches. Are they running consistently? Are (city officials) making sure that they have relationships?' Williams said. 'In '95, as a 4-year-old, I actually do remember going to some of those churches to stay cool during that time. And so that actually means investing in spaces that may seem unlikely.' Human-made climate change is making summers in the Midwest more humid overall, even as seasonal high temperatures have rarely broken records in recent years. According to experts, sweltering summer nights, in particular, have become more common. In Chicago, while overall summer average temperatures have warmed by 1.7 degrees between 1970 and 2024, average overnight lows have increased by 2.5 degrees in that same period. Johnson said his administration will consider policy recommendations from the Defusing Disasters group as the city plans for future heat waves. 'At a time when the federal government is dismantling not only environmental protections, but also federal disaster relief funding, this is the type of work that is needed,' Johnson said. 'This project is a model of how community, academia and city government can work together to make sure no one in our city falls through the cracks and ensure that everyone is protected.'