SMILES

I was just wondering what some of your experiences are with feeding post cleft palate surgery, meaning a couple weeks post surgery, after healing has occurred. Our doctor will only allow a regular cup or syringe after surgery (no sippy or bottle). I don't know how we'll manage, but I guess we will somehow, as others have as well. What I'm wondering, though, is how long it takes the kids to learn to suck and how long the transition is to a sippy cup or regular bottle. If you've gone back to using your pre-surgery bottle (i.e. Haberman, Pigeon, etc.), how long do you stick with it? Are you practicing using other cups/bottles? Also, how do they do with solids? I know some of this depends on the age of the child when surgery occurs. I've been having some difficulty with spoon feeding, as our daughter seems aggravated at the food hitting the cleft and/or coming through her nose. I'm still trying to do it some to keep her used to it, but it is not a source of nourishment right now. Our daughter will be 8 months at the time of her surgery. Thanks for your input!

After Eyson's palate surgery I continued to give him his Pigeon bottle. He never did anything but bite on the nipple anyway. His PS was totally fine with him having his bottle. Softer foods such as yogurt, pudding, mashed potatoes, etc. i fed to him for a very short time with a syringe. It didn't take him long to want to eat regular food. He really did exceptionally well. He was eating the Gerber toddler foods like ravioli and vegetables and fruit. He has never learned to suck on anything. He's now off his bottle and on a sippy cup but he only bites on the sippy cup, too. I'm not really sure how to teach him that. I guess I'm just hoping that he picks it up somehow.

After Jacksons palate repair, he went back to the haberman, and used it up until he was off the bottle completely. Our PS allowed the Haberman right after surgery so we didn't even attempt anything new before surgery. He never really ate any solids before his repair and about 2 weeks after surgery he started eating baby food, and skipped right up to table food pretty quick. As far as "sucking"goes, I'm not sure how you teach that. One day my niece gave Jackson a cup with a straw, and as I was telling her that he couldn't suck out of a straw...he was drinking away!!! Now he drinks out of regular gerber sippy cups with the valve in! I think it mostly has to do with his brother using those, and he wants everything just like his brother, so he figured it out! It seems like a long process, but it will all work out in the end! Good luck with surgery, keep us posted!
Allison

We have some conerns about this as well. Since Avery has had a feeding tube since birth and has never been fed by mouth we are going to be starting from scratch with the whole thing after palate surgery. We tried the Haberman for a while but he had such little control, even with nectar thick liquids, he couldn't handle it.

We are hoping to skip the bottle though and go straight to a sippy cup and soft foods once the doctors give the okay.

His palate repair is scheduled for July and he will be 11 months old by then.

Thanks for the replies. Just to update... Anne had her surgery on Feb. 12th and was fed by syringe for 2 weeks. After that we went back to the Haberman for a week and then she was able to suck out of a regular Avent nipple! I was pleasantly surprised. I have given her a sippy a couple of times but she hasn't really gotten the hang of it yet (although I haven't really pushed it alot). The one thing we're having trouble with is solids. She doesn't seem to want to eat them. We go for her 9 month appointment on Friday and we may be going to the feeding clinic after that. We'll see. I can't quite figure out why she won't eat, if it's a mechanical issue or if she just prefers the bottle.