Inside the dark room of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Florida Hospital lies 41-week-old Tyler White.  At only 23-weeks, he entered the world very early.  Leaving his mother's womb caused the fragile bundle of life to miss some developmental stages, specifically the suck, swallow, breathe reflex needed to feed.

Amy Robertson a music therapist at Florida Hospital said, "That's something that we all learn in the third trimester in the womb, so when we're born before that, around 24 or 25 weeks, we don't have that reflex."

When that happens, babies are forced to learn the reflex in the NICU, a stressful environment with non-stop movement, beeping monitors and machines. 

One of these machines, it designed to make life easy for baby Tyler.  It is called the Pacifier Activated Lullaby, or PAL system.

The PAL system is a sensor that is hooked up to a pacifier, it is hooked up to some speakers and a control box with a CD inside, and when the baby sucks, it triggers the music to play.

It is positive reinforcement for the baby, but it also helps doctors and nurses to keep up with the baby's progress.  The machine tells the pressure of the suck, how many times the baby needs to suck to make the music play, pacing, and endurance.  According to Amy Robertson, babies using PAL are feeding twice as much.

"Its great because the babies leave the hospital about an average of two weeks earlier with the PAL than they would without, and it just helps them feed much quicker, and they're calmer babies, and feeding time is a great experience instead of a stressful one," Robertson said.

Baby Tyler is getting the hang of it, realizing that feeding time is music to his ears. 

Florida Hospital is only one of two hospitals in the state and country to use the PAL system for preemies.

That's a look at Your Kids,
Lauren Johnson, Central Florida News 13.