Let me apologize in advance for the length of this post.  I tried to edit it
but it was all just too bizarre.  Have any of you heard of this before?  What
are your thoughts?  I got this from my clipper service.  I especially like
the part about it being common for even full-term babies to lack the ability
to suck and that a preemie who had never been fed orally sucked down an
entire bottle of formula after using the PAL.  Oh yeah, and don't forget
weary moms will be soothed and comforted as well.  Give me a break.

Theresa Chmiel, CLC, ICCE
Las Vegas, NV

Infants Thrive With Musical Pacifier

     TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--(BW HealthWire)--Dec. 14, 1999--Research at Florida
State University (FSU) now pushes music's mysterious power into a potentially
revolutionary dimension in modifying baby behavior.

     The year 2000 will see the commercial debut of the world's first musical
pacifier, a device conceived by an FSU innovator in music therapy.

     A product of 10 years of research led by music therapist Dr. Jayne
Standley, the device combines the soothing power of lullabies with an
ingenious design that helps newborn infants grasp the critically important
skill of sucking, a talent not all babies are born.

     Aimed specifically at addressing a long-standing problem among premature
infants -- delayed proficiencies in learning to suck from either breast or
bottle -- Standley's musical pacifier has demonstrated what she calls
"amazing" results in repeated tests done at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare,
a local hospital.

     The device delivers music reinforcement each time a premature infant
sucks a specially wired pacifier. Infants thus learn to suck along with
reassuring sounds of CD-based lullabies (all recorded by female performers)
while worried mothers and care-givers get pacified at the same time.

     Scheduled to be marketed under the name "PAL," (Pacifier Activated
Lullaby), the invention exploits infants' natural appetite for music and
applies it in a medically useful way for neonatal care.  In only minutes,
"'preemies' as young as 8 months and weighing as little as three pounds can
get the hang of the pacifier," says Standley.  "In one test, a 'preemie' who
had never fed orally before sucked down a whole bottle of formula after 15
minutes of training with the musical pacifier," Stanley said.

     Poor or entirely missing sucking skills in infants -- both premature and
full-term -- is a common occurrence that inhibits babies' physical and mental
development and can lead to protracted -- and thus costly -- stays in
hospitals and birth centers. FSU is licensing the development of its musical
pacifier to a healthcare company that specializes in providing music therapy
equipment to hospitals.

     The pacifier prototype will be highlighted on Dec. 16, 1999, at the
National Association of Neonatal Nurses in Orlando, Fla., with Dr. Standley
as one of the speakers.  The musical pacifier will hit the medical market in
four to six months.

     (1) Beta and VHS video available upon request.

CONTACT:

Florida State University

Matt Quinn, 202/785-6703

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