JERUSALEM — Is Mozart good for babies? A group of Israeli doctors have plunged into this long-running debate with a small study that found the soothing sounds of the 18th-century composer may help premature babies grow faster.
Doctors at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center measured the energy expenditure of 20 infants born pre-term while listening to Mozart in their incubator. They compared that figure with the amount of energy they expended without the music. But the scientists did not test a control group to measure the energy used by babies who didn’t listen to Mozart at all.
Among the babies in the study, the findings showed Mozart lowered the quantity of energy they used, meaning the babies may be able to increase their weight faster.
The study was published in the current issue of the medical journal Pediatrics.
