Thrive Feeding Secures $500K Seed Funding to Develop Smart Baby Bottle for Infant Feeding Insights
San Diego-based Thrive Feeding Secures $500,000 in Seed Funding to Develop Smart Baby Feeding Products
Brian Wadsworth, founder of Thrive Feeding, stated that four years ago he knew almost nothing about infant feeding until he met a researcher who had dedicated his life to studying the subject.
“The scope of infant feeding issues is vast, which I find truly astonishing,” said Wadsworth. “Yet there is no corresponding coverage in news and media; the existence of this problem has been overlooked and ignored by the public. What shocks me even more is that no efforts have been made to address it.”
In the following years, Wadsworth began to study infant feeding intermittently, and finally co-founded Thrive Feeding with Ken Smith last summer.
“Thrive Feeding inspired us to create an efficient, simple, and smart neonatal feeding device that informs mothers how to indirectly assess their infant’s health status through feeding patterns,” he said. “No healthcare system or mother can directly determine whether an infant is a healthy feeder, nor identify the specific indicators that explain why an infant may not be feeding healthily.”
Current standard of care involves indirectly monitoring infant feeding by tracking changes in weight gain or loss after birth.
Thrive Feeding’s first product is a baby bottle that tracks how much milk an infant consumes at each feeding from birth to 60–90 days of age and transmits the data to a companion app. Wadsworth stated that he is not yet prepared to provide a detailed explanation of the product, as it remains in the research and development phase. He explained that the product concept treats feeding as a behavioral issue, and the device must be designed to assess, measure, track, and record infants’ feeding behaviors.
Wadsworth stated that the product is currently in the development phase, and he expects it to be available directly to consumers within three to six months.
“When our baby was born, we didn’t know whether he could obtain sufficient nutrition through oral feeding. We very much wanted him to feed by mouth, because the alternative—providing nutrition via a feeding tube or intravenous infusion—is a far from ideal option,” said Wadsworth. “The first thing this technology does is enable screening of an infant’s feeding ability.”
In the future, this baby bottle can be used for preterm infants who are currently fed via feeding tubes. Clinicians believe that it is very difficult for preterm infants to feed from a bottle. This product will generate new data to help them determine whether an infant is able to feed from a bottle; however, these types of use cases require further research and FDA clearance.
“The product was originally designed to be offered directly to consumers, helping parents track their children’s progress,” said Wadsworth. “This technology will be used to identify breastfeeding issues that arise during infancy,” Wadsworth said. “In other words, if our product data indicate that an infant has a hearty appetite but is not receiving adequate nutrition, we can begin to attribute the underlying cause to factors related to the mother or the external environment.”
Last October, in Atlanta, Georgia, NFANT Labs, formerly known as the CCB Research Group, received FDA approval for its smart baby bottle. The smart baby bottle uses sensors to measure the force of the baby's tongue and sends data to the user's mobile device.
Compiled by: Chen Kun
Responsible Editor: Zhang Nan