How do you feed a baby with a cleft lip and palate?

How Can I Feed My Baby With a Cleft Lip? Most babies born with a cleft lip (and no cleft palate) feed well without any special equipment. They usually can breastfeed or use a regular bottle-feeding system. The only change needed might be positioning the nipple so the baby can latch.

How does a cleft palate affect feeding?

A cleft is an opening or split in the palate. This cleft can make feeding hard for your baby. Most babies with a cleft of the palate are not able to use standard bottles or solely breast feed because they cannot create the suction needed to draw the milk out of the nipple.

Can you cup feed a baby with cleft palate?

Cup Feeding the Infant with Cleft Lip and/or Palate Breastfeeding must be discontinued for at least 3 weeks after surgery, causing possible breast engorgement for mother and decrease in milk supply. Child must be cup feeding before palate repair. Changing from bottle to cup can be upsetting for mother and baby.

Can babies with cleft palate use a pacifier?

The doctor will decide when the palate incision is healed enough to add milk products and then pureed foods. See the education sheet, “Cleft palate repair: Feeding your child”. Again, all feedings should be followed by a water rinse. No nipples, pacifiers, or straws are permitted.

Can babies with cleft palate eat solids?

Introducing solids Babies with cleft lip, cleft palate or cleft lip and palate usually start taking solids at the same time as other babies (between four to six months of age). Sometimes food may come out through your baby’s nose during feeding.

Can a cleft lip fix itself?

Despite the growing incidence of oral clefts, these defects can be successfully repaired, but it is crucial that parents-to-be and parents of newborns diagnosed with such conditions take a proactive role in devising their child’s treatment plan, say physicians at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, which sees more …

Is having a cleft lip a disability?

MYTH: Children with a cleft are ‘disabled’ or have learning difficulties. FACT: A cleft is not a ‘disability’. It may affect a child in ways that mean they need extra help, but most children with a cleft are not affected by any other condition and are capable of doing just as well at school as any other child.

Is cleft palate special needs?

As noted, a child with cleft palate requires special care. Three common problems for young children with cleft palate include: 1. When eating or drinking, food and fluids can pass from the mouth through the nose.

Can you nurse a baby with a cleft palate?

In the presence of a cleft palate, breastfeeding in the traditional manner is often not recommended, but there are alternative methods for providing breast milk to your baby. Pumping breast milk and using specialty bottles are supported as a way of feeding a baby with a cleft palate.

What are stage 2 foods?

Stage 2 baby foods are thicker mixtures that contain blends of multiple ingredients — fruits, vegetables, proteins, and/or grains. Even though they are sometimes called “thicker purees,” they may be strained or mashed instead of pureed.