Smart Bottle Holder Tracks Your Baby's Nutrition

What's This?

This bottle sleeve monitors a baby's nutrition intake in real time.

Image: Sleevey

By Samantha Murphy Kelly2014-05-05 18:43:35 UTC

There are dozens of smart monitors on the market that track a child's sleep patterns, but there's not a lot of tech available to stay on top of your baby's food.

Enter Sleevey, a company that just launched a $85,000 Kickstarter campaign for a device that aims to help parents track how much their baby eats and drinks.

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The lightweight device wraps around a baby's bottle; its smart sensors measure the volume and temperature of formula. This data is transmitted to the parent’s mobile device via Bluetooth whenever you open the accompanying app.

"While the 'Internet of Things' market is rapidly growing, companies are focused on solutions aimed at the adult market, leaving the infant market unattended," CEO and co-founder Ike Ofner told Mashable.

Ofner came up with the concept after his son was born in July 2012; the baby had a condition that required Ofner to track his nutrition. "We were asked to specifically monitor time and amount for each meal, but there wasn't a good way to automatically log this information," he said.

Nearly 130 million babies are born every year around the world — and 13 million of them are premature, in which case food tracking is often mandatory. Even when it isn't, it's not uncommon for doctors to ask parents to monitor feeding patterns, especially during infancy when diet plays a key role in development and growth.

The data also syncs to the cloud, so parents can view real-time updates on when and how much their baby ate, even when they're at work.

"Many parents, especially mothers after their maternity leave, face true anxiety when they need to share and trust other caregivers with the responsibility of feeding their infants," Ofner says.

The app also provides users with tailored recommendations for improved nutrition, as well as benchmark comparisons. Perhaps the only danger: some parents may get as obsessive over their baby's diet as they are about their own.

Smart baby products may be a small category so far, but it won't be for long. We've already seen Smart Diapers and a Smart Baby Scale. There's also a Huggies Tweetpee app that sends you a tweet when your baby pees.

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Topics: Family & Parenting, Gadgets, Health & Fitness, kickstarter, Lifestyle, Tech