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British Journal of Healthcare and Medical Research - Vol. 10, No. 6
Publication Date: December 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/bjhmr.106.16106.
Alshahrani, S. S., Alfulaij, A. Y., & Alokaily, A. O. (2023). Design and Development of an Automated System to Help with Feeding
Infants. British Journal of Healthcare and Medical Research, Vol - 10(6). 325-334.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Design and Development of an Automated System to Help
with Feeding Infants
Suhail S Alshahrani
College of Applied Medical Sciences,
Department of Biomedical Technology,
King Saud University, Riyadh,12372, Saudi Arabia
Abdulrahman Y Alfulaij
College of Applied Medical Sciences,
Department of Biomedical Technology,
King Saud University, Riyadh,12372, Saudi Arabia
Ahmad O Alokaily
College of Applied Medical Sciences,
Department of Biomedical Technology,
King Saud University, Riyadh,12372, Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
Feeding infants is considered one of the biggest challenges for parents, especially in
the first three months. Infants under three months old usually must be fed every
two hours, which can burden many parents, particularly at bedtime. Therefore, this
paper develops and validates a cost-effective assistive and automated system to
automatically prepare and store a filled feeding bottle during bedtime. A bottle
keeper to cool and warm an infant’s bottle is used to store a feeding bottle at the
recommended temperature and warm it at set feeding intervals or whenever
hunger signs are detected. Several experiments are performed to test and validate
the proposed system. The system shows promising results in facilitating infant
feeding for parents, especially at bedtime. In addition, the system can help enhance
infants’ nutrition.
Keywords: Infants, Feeding bottle, Microcontroller, Sensors, Automation.
INTRODUCTION
The ideal infant feeding practice is one of the most effective interventions for enhancing a
child’s health [1]. A newborn feeding routine consists of repetitive feedings every two to four
hours or 8 to 12 times daily [2, 3]. In addition, approximately 60–90 milliliters of the feeding
volume is required for the baby to grow and develop [4]. During a newborn’s first two days, the
stomach size is equivalent to a small ball or a cherry, requiring approximately 5–7 milliliters of
milk [5, 6]. Within a week, the volume grows to the size of a small plum or apricot, holding 45–
60 milliliters [7, 8]. By the first month, the stomach doubles significantly, reaching the size of a
chicken egg, accommodating approximately 80–150 milliliters [8].
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British Journal of Healthcare and Medical Research (BJHMR) Vol 10, Issue 6, December- 2023
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Natural feeding is widely recommended to provide the best nutrition for newborns and infants
[9]. However, some babies struggle with latching onto the breast, so using a feeding bottle with
stored breast milk is an optimum alternative [10]. Moreover, other factors may lead to
considering artificial feeding using baby formula [11].
Therefore, utilizing milk bottles has become a widely accepted practice.
Certain physical signs appear in infants when they are about to be hungry, including head and
hand movement, mouth opening, and sticking out the tongue, which are the most common [12].
Moreover, crying is considered one of the main signs of hunger in healthy infants [13-15]. For
this reason, monitoring the physical signs of hunger can help accelerate the preparation of the
feeding bottle. Additionally, poor feeding in infants refers to an infant being uninterested in
feeding. It can also apply to an infant not eating enough to gain the nutrition required for proper
growth [16]. Poor feeding can result in poor growth, weakness, slight weight gain, and
dehydration [16].
Thus, parents and caregivers are instructed to feed babies at planned feeding intervals to avoid
malnutrition complications if no medical issues cause this condition [17-19]. However, feeding
newborns can be physically and mentally tiring to parents because newborns wake up
frequently and require feeding throughout the day and night [20]. As a result, parents,
especially mothers, suffer from sleep deprivation during the first three months after delivery
(i.e., postpartum insomnia) [21, 22].
Advanced technologies and instrumentations, websites, mobile apps, and systems can help
parents by reminding them of feeding times to prepare feeding bottles quickly when needed
[23-26]. Several fully automated feeding bottle preparation systems are commercially available
[26-28]. However, despite the current systems’ effectiveness and dependability, they are costly
and complex. Therefore, developing simple and affordable automated systems is necessary to
enhance infants’ nutrition and quality of life. In this paper, a low-cost system to help parents
enhance and facilitate infant feeding is designed and validated. The system can safely store the
baby bottle and prepare it when feeding is required. The developed system has two primary
advantages: 1) improving infants’ health, especially if they have a low appetite, so that parents
do not miss the recommended feeding time based on their infants’ age, and 2) helping parents
sleep enough at night by saving the effort and required time to leave the bed to prepare the
baby bottle.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The block diagram of the proposed automated system is shown in Figure 1. The system
generally consists of electrical components run by a custom software program. The system is
designed to automatically keep the prefilled feeding bottle cold during bedtime and then start
warming it as the feeding time approaches or when the sensors detect physical movement or a
crying sound. The system in this prototype incorporates two circuits: the monitoring circuit
(i.e., main circuit) and the heating/cooling circuit (i.e., slave circuit). The main aim of the
monitoring circuit is to detect physical signs of hunger. Hence, an adjustable sound sensor
detects the sound (crying) from the close environment of the crib, while a motion sensor detects
and registers infant movement. Additionally, the monitoring circuit sets the time required for
feeding based on the child’s age. A modified heating/cooling mug is used in this prototype as a
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Alshahrani, S. S., Alfulaij, A. Y., & Alokaily, A. O. (2023). Design and Development of an Automated System to Help with Feeding Infants. British
Journal of Healthcare and Medical Research, Vol - 10(6). 325-334.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/bjhmr.106.16106.
feeding bottle keeper to cool and warm the bottle. A digital infrared temperature sensor
accurately measures the feeding bottle temperature during cooling and heating, with the
instructions, operation condition, and bottle temperature displayed on a screen. An audible
alarm notifies users when the bottle is ready.
Fig.1: Block diagram of the proposed system
Hardware
The automated system consists of the following main components:
• Microcontrollers: Two low-cost microcontrollers (Arduino UNO) are used in two circuits
and connected with other parts to achieve the purpose of the system, and a bidirectional
master/slave communication approach is adopted to facilitate the information flow
between the two circuits.
• The Baby Bottle Keeper (Heating/Cooling Mug): A warming/cooling cup holder is
modified and used in this prototype to serve as a feeding bottle keeper. The main parts
for heating and cooling are the thermoelectric Peltier, heating sink, and 5V fan. The
thermoelectric Peltier has two sides, so when a current passes through one pair of
elements from n-type to p-type, it brings heat from one side to the other. Thus, the
temperature decreases on the bottom side while the top side, attached to the cup holder,
is warmed (the warming procedure). When the polarity of the input voltage is inversed
with the thermoelectric Peltier, the top side is cold, while the bottom side is warmed so
that the cup holder starts the cooling procedure.
• Digital Infrared Temperature Sensor: A digital infrared temperature sensor (Model #
MLX90614) is an infrared thermometer for a non-contact temperature measurement
module. The sensor detects a wide range of ambient temperatures (–40 to 125 °C) with
high accuracy of ±1 °C and a resolution of 0.02 °C. The temperature sensor is mounted
inside the bottle keeper to measure the feeding bottle temperature.