Analysis of infant tongue movement during breastfeeding in ultrasound videos

Although science established that breastfeeding is the healthiest option for mother and child, most women are not able to breastfeed exclusively for the first 6 months, as advised by the World Health Organization, mainly due to the infant physical abilities. In fact, it has been shown that issues with infant tongue movements are linked to breastfeeding problems. However, there is a lack of a simple to use diagnostic tools that characterize the infant tongue movement during breastfeeding. In this study, we developed an image-processing algorithm aimed at analyzing the tongue movement of an infant from ultrasound videos. We then used this algorithm on several US videos to provide a description of tongue motion during breastfeeding. We found that our results are in line with previous reports regarding the frequency and amplitude of the tongue movement and that the motion can be described as a transversal wave. This work is a first step towards the integration of such an algorithm into a portable ultrasound device that enables the care provider to assess breastfeeding skills of infants for diagnosis purposes.