Feeding Problems

[KT]

My son is almost 2 months old and has a cleft palate. He still has difficulty sucking/swalloing and is not gaining weight at an acceptable rate. Any ideas on how to get him to learn this... or what other issues there might be? we have seen may OT's - nothing has worked...

[Karen]

Do you have a public health nurse that does home visits that can give you advice and watch feedings, check your local health department and ask specifically for a nurse that sees kids with special health care needs.

[tonijd@hotmail.com]

My daughter is now 14 years old and will have her last surgery next summer. She went back into the hospital when she was six days old for feeding difficulties. Finally a nurse contacted someone from the Johnson & Johnson company who sent us some squeezable bottles. By using the squeezable bottles your son won't have to work as hard and you can squeeze them as he sucks. Works great for everyone. It will also be easier if he as a plate made for the roof of his mouth if he hasn't had his palate closed yet.

[Christine]

With the last comment on the squeezable bottles, they work wonderful. My daughter is 3 years old now and she had a cleft lip and palate, she had now sucking reflex and could not make a seal around a nipple. The bottles worked wonderfully, I got them from the hospital she was born in. I also contacted my pediatrician who spoke to the rep from mead Johnson, they were the best bottles. One word of advice, if you use the squeezable bottles, keep mylacon gas drops on hand, the bottles tend to instill more air into the baby and cause more gas, coliclike symptoms, trust me it can be a misreable experience without gas drops. Hope this also helps

[parris mom]

my son was born last year with cleft lip and palete.the hospital gave us the bottles everyone is talking about but they also gave us some special nipples they were called pigeon nipples we got them though mail order also from Children's Medical Ventures,Inc. there # is
1-888-766-8443 the item number is 98073 they are $3.00 but very worth it for us. they work with the mead bottles,they have a special valve that keeps the milk from continuously coming out.the child does not have to suck just push with their gums.there is a soft side and a slightly harder side the slightly harder sid goes down toward their tongue.this nipple is larger and bigger around than the nipples you can get at the stores.the older my son got he started using his tongue to draw the milk out.if you get these i have one tip put the nipple inside the bottle lip then put the vent in the piont goes down it might sound like alot of work but its worth it for the children. my son has never had a problem gaining weight once we started this bottle system.i hope this will help you if you have any more questions or i have some new never been used nipples email me at j31punk@yahoo.com parris mom

[SF]

My son was born last Nov. The hospital did not teach
me the correct way to feed my son he had to be hospitalized
because he lost too much weight. I am using a Habermann
nipple made by Medela. The first two days I had to
hold his jaw up with my fingers while holding the bottle
it was difficult but he figured it out and I don't have
to do it anymore and he is growing like a week! You
might talk to a speech therapist at the hospital they
helped me.