Aiden's Surgery-Feeding Question

Children and adults with cleft lip and/or palate issues

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Aiden's Surgery-Feeding Question

Postby racheleok » Fri Sep 07, 2007 10:28 pm

I have a question---
My son just had his lip repaired and he is having trouble using his regular bottle. He uses the Mead Johnson bottle with the red Ross nipple. He seems to be drowning in formula because his suckle is very strong. I know this is good and I don't have to squeeze anymore but, What should I do with the nipples. I tried to cut smaller ones, but I'm not sure if they are ok. He is 2 days out of surgery and at time he flinches in pain if I touch the nipple near his mouth. Other times he drinks about two ounces. He used to drink 4-5 at a time. I'm worries he'll become dehydrated. I know it is not a good time to try other nipples. I like the Ross one because it is soft and probably less irritating to his sutures. Any advice??
Here he is, 1 day post op.

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Here he is pre-op:
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racheleok
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simple dehydration test

Postby Linda S S » Sat Sep 08, 2007 5:43 pm

What a cutie! A simple test for dehydration is to gently pinch the skin on the back of the hand. If the pinched area does NOT spring right back into place the individual is dehydrated.
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Postby mookie59 » Sun Sep 09, 2007 9:03 am

Taylor did the same thing! I worried and worried about her getting dehydrated.

I did try other nipples & bottles. Once I resorted to a turkey baster out of frustration. Then a miracle happened I remembered I had a soft spout sippy cup in the cabinet from my other grands and so I removed the valve and gave that to her. She fell in love with it - drank 6 ounces and was hooked on the sippy cup from 4 months old until now. I was needless to say THRILLED!

Taylor's surgeon said it was the best thing that could have happened to her because before she can have her hard palate repair she HAS to be weaned to a sippy cup.

But Taylor has no suction at all. We used the mead johnson bottle with their nipple with a larger crisscut in them.

I wasn't trying to say that a sippy cup might work for Aiden I just wanted to let you know that trying other types of bottles worked a miracle for us.

I think if you can try another bottle and get Aiden to be more comfortable drinking then I see no problem with it.

BTW - Aiden is a cutie pie!
Jennifer
Nanny to Taylor (uclbcp)
11/1/06
lip repair - 4 months
soft palate repair - 6 months
hard palate repair - 10 months
fistula repair - scheduled March 14th
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Postby samjune79 » Mon Sep 10, 2007 10:21 am

I hope he is feeding better for you. After my son's surgery lip surgery he still couldn't suck but he just had his palate surgery and can now suck. Yep, I have the same issue, the formula floods his mouth, so I put rice in his formula to make it a bit thicker so the flow isn't as fast until I can try him on a different nipple. Hard thing is that he is really hooked on the ones he has now. Good luck to you.
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