Baby scientists

 

Published by the Communications and Development Department

 

17 December 2003

 

Researchers in the Department of Communication Disorders at the University of Canterbury are conducting non-invasive research on the co-ordination of breathing and swallowing in full-term healthy babies at the birthing unit at Burwood Hospital.

 

The researchers, under the supervision of Dr Maggie Lee Huckabee and Associate Professor Richard Jones, are seeking mothers with newborn babies to take part in the project.

 

Researcher and post-graduate student Bronwen Kelly said that traditionally, babies were thought to be able to breathe and swallow at the same time. “More recently it has been shown that babies stop breathing for a brief moment as they swallow”.

 

Ms Kelly and fellow post-graduate student Lauren Ragg will be evaluating the precise breathing-swallowing coordination and how it changes as babies get older. No other research has followed this maturation process in babies from birth into their childhood.

 

“This research will establish when children coordinate their breathing and swallowing in an adult-like fashion. By determining the way healthy babies and children breathe and swallow disorders affecting breathing-swallowing coordination can be better understood and treated,” Ms Kelly said.

 

The study is a component of a larger study designed to help understand what part of the brain controls the breathing-swallowing coordination. The larger study aims to compare how the young brain controls breathing and swallowing coordination to that of the mature, adult brain. Similar studies on healthy adults of all ages will be carried out next year.

 

For information on taking part in the research email Lauren lar32@student.canterbury.ac.nz or Bronwen bmk21@student.canterbury.ac.nz or phone the University of Canterbury: 364 2987 extension 7161 or extension 7337.