Automatic breastfeeding method of premature infant and automatic breastfeeding machine

An automatic breastfeeding method of a premature infant is disclosed, which includes a preparation stage, an active lactation stage, a passive lactation stage and a rest stage. The invention also provides an automatic breastfeeding machine used for the automatic breastfeeding method of a premature infant, comprising a stomach tube, a lactation supply device, a detector and a control device. According to the invention, a self-sucking ability of the premature infant is trained, normal circulation of a mouth-pharyngeal-gastric-intestinal reflex of the premature infant is realized, and nutritional requirements of the premature infant are ensured in the case of taking differences of the premature infants into account, so that the premature infants have no difference with term infants in care, diet, neurological development and growth and development in the future.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention belongs to the field of medical device technologies, and more particularly, relates to an automatic breastfeeding method of a premature infant and an automatic breastfeeding machine.

BACKGROUND

The progress in current medical science and technology significantly improves a survival rate of premature infants. At present, the survival rate of premature infants with a birth weight of 1000 g to 2500 g has reached 85% to 95%, but the surviving premature infants are easy to suffer from growth retardation. The probability of growth retardation of premature infants with a birth weight less than 1500 g is as high as 50%, which not only affects the physical growth of the premature infants, but also greatly increases the possibility of long-term occurrence of metabolic disease, hypertension and neurological sequelae. It is related to the difficulty in establishing enteral nutrition for the premature infants after birth, and the difficulty in establishing enteral nutrition is related to the incomplete gastrointestinal tract development of the premature infants Meanwhile, due to the incomplete sucking and swallowing function of the premature infants, they cannot be fed orally for a long period of time after birth. A stomach tube is regularly used clinically, and a syringe is used by the nursing staff to inject lactation into the stomach to provide enteral nutrition. This method disrupts normal circulation of a mouth-pharyngeal-gastric-intestinal reflex of the body, further weakens the gastrointestinal digestion ability, and affects the nutritional absorption of the premature infants, thus causing the occurrence of growth retardation and leading to poor long-term prognosis.

The infants have the sucking ability when being about 20 weeks of gestational age, but the coordination of sucking and swallowing is realized when the infants are about 34 weeks of gestational age. Clinically, for the premature infants born within 34 weeks of pregnancy, in order to avoid the risk of lactation choking of the premature infants caused by direct feeding, lactation is fed by the stomach tube. Starting with a small amount of lactation according to clinical experience, the amount of lactation is increased slightly every day, and the infant is patted once every 2 h to 3 h regardless of whether the infant is sleeping or not, and the lactation is injected in about 1 min. This method does not take the individual differences of the premature infants into account, which easily leads to feeding intolerance of some premature infants, and this method completely deprives the premature infants of their sucking needs, which leads to the inability of premature infants to get training in self-sucking, and makes it difficult for premature infants to suck lactation at the later stage. As a result, the hospitalization time is prolonged, the hospitalization expenses are increased, and even the nervous system development is affected, thus causing great burden to family and society.

SUMMARY

The present invention is intended to overcome the defects in the prior art and provides an automatic breastfeeding method of a premature infant.

The present invention is realized as follows: an automatic breastfeeding method of a premature infant comprises the following steps of:

(1) a preparation stage: firstly, pre-storing lactation required for nutrition of the premature infant in a lactation supply device; arranging one end of a stomach tube in a stomach of the premature infant, and connecting the other end of the stomach tube with the lactation supply device; and then arranging a detector in a mouth of the premature infant, electrically connecting the detector with a control device, and electrically connecting the control device with the lactation supply device;

(2) an active lactation stage: when the premature infant sucks the detector, acquiring, by the detector, a sucking action of the premature infant, converting the sucking action into a sucking signal and transmitting the sucking signal to the control device, starting the lactation supply device after the control device receives the sucking signal, and stopping supplying lactation after the lactation supply device supplies a certain amount of lactation to the premature infant through the stomach tube;

when the premature infant sucks the detector again, acquiring, by the detector, a sucking action of the premature infant, converting the sucking action into a sucking signal and transmitting the sucking signal to the control device, starting the lactation supply device after the control device receives the sucking signal, and stopping supplying lactation after the lactation supply device supplies a certain amount of lactation to the premature infant through the stomach tube; and

circulating in such manner until lactation in the lactation supply device is completely fed or the active lactation stage is ended;

(3) a passive lactation stage: when the lactation in the lactation supply device is completely fed in the step (2), transmitting a signal that the lactation is completely fed by the lactation supply device to the control device, and closing, by the control device, the lactation supply device, without performing passive lactation supply on the premature infant by the lactation supply device;

if residual lactation still exists in the lactation supply device after the active lactation stage is ended in the step (2), transmitting, by the lactation supply device, a signal that the residual lactation still exists to the control device, starting, by the control device, the lactation supply device to uniformly supply the residual lactation to the premature infant through the stomach tube until the lactation is completely fed, transmitting, by the lactation supply device, a signal that the lactation is completely fed to the control device, and closing, by the control device, the lactation supply device, without performing passive lactation supply on the premature infant by the lactation supply device; and

(4) a rest stage: letting the premature infant rest until the rest stage is ended after the step (3) is finished.

Specifically, the amount of lactation required for nutrition of the premature infant pre-stored in the lactation supply device in the step (1) is 5 ml to 60 ml.

Specifically, the active lactation stage in the step (2) lasts for 10 min to 15 min.

Specifically, an amount of lactation supplied to the premature infant by the lactation supply device in the step (2) is 0.04 ml to 0.06 ml.

Specifically, the passive lactation stage in the step (3) lasts for 5 min to 10 min.

Specifically, a supplying speed of the lactation supply device in the step (3) is 0.4 ml/min to 2 ml/min.

Specifically, the rest stage in the step (4) lasts for 2 h to 3 h.

The present invention further provides an automatic breastfeeding machine used for the automatic breastfeeding method of a premature infant above, which comprises a lactation supply device and a stomach tube, wherein the lactation required for nutrition of the premature infant is stored in the lactation supply device, one end of the stomach tube is arranged in the stomach of the premature infant, the other end of the stomach tube is connected with the lactation supply device, the automatic breastfeeding machine further comprises a detector for detecting whether the premature infant has a sucking action and a control device, the detector is arranged in the mouth of the premature infant, the detector is electrically connected with the control device, and the control device is electrically connected with the lactation supply device.

Specifically, the lactation supply device comprises a shell, an installation groove is arranged in the shell, a propeller is fixedly arranged in the installation groove, the propeller comprises a sleeve for storing lactation, a piston, a pushing rod and a pushing plate, an injection head at a front end of the sleeve extends out of the shell and is connected with the stomach tube, the piston is slidably arranged in the sleeve, the piston is fixedly connected with a front end of the pushing rod, and a rear end of the pushing rod is fixedly connected with the pushing plate;

a distance sensing device is further arranged between a rear end of the piston and a rear end of the sleeve, the distance sensing device comprises a distance detection sensor and a reflecting plate, the reflecting plate is fixedly arranged on the piston, the distance detection sensor is fixedly arranged on the sleeve, and the distance detection sensor and the reflecting plate are electrically connected with the control device respectively;

the lactation supply device further comprises a motor, an output shaft of the motor is fixedly connected with a rear end of a screw through a shaft sleeve, a front end of the screw is sleeved with a screw sleeve, the screw is in threaded connection with the screw sleeve, and the screw sleeve is fixedly connected with the pushing plate; and

the motor is electrically connected with a motor driver, and the motor driver is electrically connected with the control device.

Specifically, the detector comprises a suction nozzle and a pressure sensor arranged in the suction nozzle, and the pressure sensor is electrically connected with the control device.

The automatic breastfeeding method of a premature infant and the automatic breastfeeding machine according to the present invention have the following technical effects:

(1) in the active lactation stage, only when the premature infant sucks the detector, the pressure sensor of the detector acquires the sucking action of the premature infant and converts the sucking action into the sucking signal to be transmitted to the control device, and the control device starts the lactation supply device to supply lactation to the premature infant after receiving the sucking signal, so that a self-sucking ability of the premature infant is trained, and normal circulation of a mouth-pharyngeal-gastric-intestinal reflex of the premature infant is realized, thus enabling the premature infants to have no difference with term infants in care, diet, neurological development and growth and development in the future;

(2) after the active lactation stage of the premature infant is ended in the step (2), if the residual lactation exists in the lactation supply device, the passive lactation stage is performed, and in the passive lactation stage, the control device starts the lactation supply device to uniformly supply the residual lactation to the premature infant through the stomach tube, so that nutritional requirements of the premature infant are ensured in the case of taking differences of the premature infants into account; and

(3) after the step (3) is finished, the rest stage is performed to enable the premature infant to have enough rest time, which is beneficial to the development of the premature infant.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention are clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention.

As shown inFIG. 1andFIG. 2, an embodiment of the present invention provides an automatic breastfeeding method of a premature infant, which comprises the following steps.

(1) In a preparation stage, lactation required for nutrition of the premature infant is firstly pre-stored in a lactation supply device1, and an amount of lactation required for nutrition is 5 ml to 60 ml; one end of a stomach tube2is arranged in a stomach of the premature infant, and the other end of the stomach tube2is connected with the lactation supply device1; and a detector3is then arranged in a mouth of the premature infant, the detector3is electrically connected with a control device4, and the control device4is electrically connected with the lactation supply device1.

(2) In an active lactation stage, when the premature infant sucks the detector3, a sucking action of the premature infant is acquired by the detector3and converted into a sucking signal, the sucking signal is transmitted to the control device4, the lactation supply device1is started after the control device4receives the sucking signal, and lactation supply is stopped after the lactation supply device1supplies a certain amount of lactation to the premature infant through the stomach tube2;

when the premature infant sucks the detector3again, a sucking action of the premature infant is acquired by the detector3and converted into a sucking signal, the sucking signal is transmitted to the control device4, the lactation supply device1is started after the control device4receives the sucking signal, and lactation supply is stopped after the lactation supply device1supplies a certain amount of lactation to the premature infant through the stomach tube2; and

circulation is performed in such manner until lactation in the lactation supply device1is completely fed or the active lactation stage is ended, an amount of lactation supplied to the premature infant by the lactation supply device1each time is 0.04 ml to 0.06 ml, and the active lactation stage lasts for 10 min to 15 min.

(3) In a passive lactation stage, when the lactation in the lactation supply device1is completely fed in the step (2), a signal that the lactation is completely fed is transmitted by the lactation supply device1to the control device4, and the lactation supply device1is closed by the control device4, without performing passive lactation supply on the premature infant by the lactation supply device1; and if residual lactation still exists in the lactation supply device1after the active lactation stage is ended in the step (2), a signal that the residual lactation still exists is transmitted by the lactation supply device1to the control device4, the lactation supply device1is started by the control device4to uniformly supply the residual lactation to the premature infant through the stomach tube2until the lactation is completely fed, a signal that the lactation is completely fed is transmitted by the lactation supply device1to the control device4, the lactation supply device1is closed by the control device4, without performing passive lactation supply on the premature infant by the lactation supply device1, a supplying speed of the lactation supply device1is 0.4 ml/min to 2 ml/min, and the passive lactation stage lasts for 5 min to 10 min.

(4) In a rest stage, the premature infant shall have a rest until the rest stage is ended after the step (3) is finished, and the rest stage lasts for 2 h to 3 h.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides an automatic breastfeeding machine used for the automatic breastfeeding method of a premature infant above, which comprises a lactation supply device1and a stomach tube2, wherein the lactation required for nutrition of the premature infant is stored in the lactation supply device1, one end of the stomach tube2is arranged in the stomach of the premature infant, the other end of the stomach tube2is connected with the lactation supply device1, the automatic breastfeeding machine further comprises a detector3for detecting whether the premature infant has a sucking action and a control device4, the detector3is arranged in the mouth of the premature infant, the detector3is electrically connected with the control device4, and the control device4is electrically connected with the lactation supply device1.

As shown inFIG. 3, specifically, the lactation supply device1comprises a shell11, an installation groove111is arranged in the shell11, a propeller12is fixedly arranged in the installation groove111, the propeller12comprises a sleeve121for storing lactation, a piston122, a pushing rod123and a pushing plate124, an injection head at a front end of the sleeve121extends out of the shell11and is connected with the stomach tube2, the piston122is slidably arranged in the sleeve121, the piston122is fixedly connected with a front end of the pushing rod123, and a rear end of the pushing rod123is fixedly connected with the pushing plate124.

A distance sensing device13is further arranged between a rear end of the piston122and a rear end of the sleeve121, the distance sensing device13comprises a distance detection sensor131and a reflecting plate132, the distance detection sensor131is preferably an infrared distance measuring sensor, the reflecting plate132is fixedly arranged on the piston122, the distance detection sensor131is fixedly arranged on the sleeve121, the distance detection sensor131and the reflecting plate132are electrically connected with the control device4respectively, and a displacement distance of the piston122is detected by the distance sensing device13to confirm a residual amount of lactation in the sleeve121. For example, a total length of the sleeve121is 12 cm, a thickness of the piston122is 1 cm, a maximum movable distance between the rear end of the sleeve121and the rear end of the piston122is 11 cm, when a distance between the distance detection sensor131and the reflecting plate132reaches a maximum distance of 11 cm, the lactation in the lactation supply device1is proved to be completely fed, and a signal that the lactation is completely fed is transmitted by the distance detection sensor131to the control device4; and when the distance between the distance detection sensor131and the reflecting plate132does not reach the maximum distance of 11 cm, residual lactation is proved to be still exist in the lactation supply device1, and a signal that the residual lactation still exists is transmitted by the distance detection sensor131to the control device4.

The lactation supply device1further comprises a motor14, an output shaft141of the motor14is fixedly connected with a rear end of a screw16through a shaft sleeve15, a front end of the screw16is sleeved with a screw sleeve17, the screw16is in threaded connection with the screw sleeve17, and the screw sleeve17is fixedly connected with the pushing plate124.

The motor14is electrically connected with a motor driver18, and the motor driver18is electrically connected with the control device4.

As shown inFIG. 4, specifically, the detector3comprises a suction nozzle31and a pressure sensor32arranged in the suction nozzle31, the pressure sensor32is electrically connected with the control device4, the pressure sensor32is used for sensing a change of pressure information in the suction nozzle31caused by the sucking action of the premature infant, the pressure sensor32converts the change of pressure information into a sucking signal and transmits the sucking signal to the control device4.

Preferably, the control device4is a microcontroller or a sequence controller.

The working principle of the automatic breastfeeding machine according to the present invention is as follows. Firstly, the automatic breastfeeding machine is started, in the active lactation stage of the step (2), when the premature infant sucks the detector3, the sucking action of the premature infant applies a pressure to the suction nozzle31of the detector3to deform the suction nozzle31, the pressure sensor32senses the change of pressure information in the suction nozzle31through the deformation of the suction nozzle31, and the pressure sensor32converts the change of pressure information caused by the sucking action into the sucking signal and transmits the sucking signal to the control device4.

Then, the control device4starts the motor driver18in the lactation supply device1after receiving the sucking signal, the motor driver18drives the output shaft141of the motor14to rotate clockwise, the output shaft141of the motor14drives the screw16to rotate clockwise through the shaft sleeve15, the screw sleeve17at the front end of the screw16can move linearly and leftward due to the clockwise rotation of the screw16, so that the screw sleeve17pushes the pushing plate124to move linearly and leftward, the pushing plate124drives the pushing rod123to move linearly and leftward, the pushing rod123drives the piston122to move linearly and leftward in the sleeve121, the piston122drives the reflecting plate132to move linearly and leftward in the sleeve121, the piston122pushes a certain amount of lactation into the stomach tube2from the sleeve121, and then the lactation is fed to the premature infant through the stomach tube2.

When the premature infant sucks the detector3again, the sucking action of the premature infant applies a pressure to the suction nozzle31of the detector3to deform the suction nozzle31, the pressure sensor32senses a change of pressure information in the suction nozzle31through the deformation of the suction nozzle31, and the pressure sensor32converts the change of pressure information caused by the sucking action into a sucking signal and transmits the sucking signal to the control device4.

Then, the control device4starts the motor driver18in the lactation supply device1after receiving the sucking signal, the motor driver18drives the output shaft141of the motor14to rotate clockwise, the output shaft141of the motor14drives the screw16to rotate clockwise through the shaft sleeve15, the screw sleeve17at the front end of the screw16can move linearly and leftward due to the clockwise rotation of the screw16, so that the screw sleeve17pushes the pushing plate124to move linearly and leftward, the pushing plate124drives the pushing rod123to move linearly and leftward, the pushing rod123drives the piston122to move linearly and leftward in the sleeve121, the piston122drives the reflecting plate132to move linearly and leftward in the sleeve121, the piston122pushes a certain amount of lactation into the stomach tube2from the sleeve121, and then the lactation is fed to the premature infant through the stomach tube2.

Circulation is performed in such manner until lactation in the lactation supply device1is completely fed or the active lactation stage is ended.

Next, in the passive lactation stage, when the lactation in the lactation supply device1is completely fed in the step (2), the signal that the lactation is completely fed is transmitted by the distance detection sensor131in the lactation supply device1to the control device4, and the lactation supply device1is closed by the control device4, without performing passive lactation supply on the premature infant by the lactation supply device1.

If residual lactation still exists in the sleeve121of the lactation supply device1after the active lactation stage is ended in the step (2), the signal that the residual lactation still exists is transmitted by the distance detection sensor131in the lactation supply device1to the control device4, the control device4starts the motor driver18in the lactation supply device1, the motor driver18drives the output shaft141of the motor14to rotate clockwise, the output shaft141of the motor14drives the screw16to rotate clockwise through the shaft sleeve15, the screw sleeve17at the front end of the screw16can move linearly and leftward due to the clockwise rotation of the screw16, so that the screw sleeve17pushes the pushing plate124to move linearly and leftward, the pushing plate124drives the pushing rod123to move linearly and leftward, the pushing rod123drives the piston122to move linearly and leftward in the sleeve121, the piston122drives the reflecting plate132to move linearly and leftward in the sleeve121, the piston122uniformly pushes the residual lactation into the stomach tube2from the sleeve121, then the lactation is fed to the premature infant through the stomach tube2until the lactation is completely fed, the signal that the lactation is completely fed is transmitted by the lactation supply device1to the control device4, and the lactation supply device1is closed by the control device4, without performing passive lactation supply on the premature infant by the lactation supply device1.

Finally, the premature infant shall have a rest until the rest stage is ended after the step (3) is finished.

The automatic breastfeeding method of a premature infant and the automatic breastfeeding machine according to the present invention have the following technical effects:

(1) in the active lactation stage, only when the premature infant sucks the detector3, the detector3acquires the sucking action of the premature infant and converts the sucking action into the sucking signal to be transmitted to the control device4, and the control device4starts the lactation supply device1to supply lactation to the premature infant after receiving the sucking signal, so that a self-sucking ability of the premature infant is trained, and normal circulation of a mouth-pharyngeal-gastric-intestinal reflex of the premature infant is realized, thus enabling the premature infants to have no difference with term infants in care, diet, neurological development and growth and development in the future;

(2) after the active lactation stage of the premature infant is ended in the step (2), if the residual lactation exists in the lactation supply device2, the passive lactation stage is performed, and in the passive lactation stage, the control device4starts the lactation supply device1to uniformly supply the residual lactation to the premature infant through the stomach tube2, so that nutritional requirements of the premature infant are ensured in the case of taking differences of the premature infants into account; and

(3) after the step (3) is finished, the rest stage is performed to enable the premature infant to have enough rest time, which is beneficial to the development of the premature infant.

The foregoing is merely the preferred embodiments of the invention, and it should be noted that those of ordinary skills in the art may further make a plurality of improvements and decorations without departing from the principle of the invention, and these improvements and decorations shall also fall within the protection scope of the invention.