Comparison of Pinching Hardness Characteristics between Nursing Mother Nipples and Baby Bottle Nipple

Abstract

Nipple confusion is well known not only to obstetricians and midwives, but also to mothers who are raising children. Nipple confusion means that an infant who has experienced feeding from a baby bottle hates feeding from mother’s nipples. Therefore, there is a demand for baby bottle nipple that do not cause nipple confusion. There are various hypotheses about the cause of nipple confusion. However, the cause is still unknown. We focused on the hardness characteristics of nipple as a cause of nipple confusion. No previous studies have quantified the hardness of nipples in women breastfeeding. We have developed a device to measure the viscoelastic properties of nipple by pinching with two plates.

Using the developed measuring device, we compared the static and dynamic properties of breastfeeding female nipples and baby bottle nipple. As a result, it was found that the static characteristics of the nipple of feeding bottle is linear, whereas the static characteristics of the nipples of breastfeeding women were nonlinear. We also found that breastfeeding women’s nipples and baby bottle nipple do not contain the dynamic characteristics.