Hello,

I want to ask if anyone has bottle fed after cleft lip surgery instead of spoon feeding from a bottle?

I live in Perth, Western Australia and the hospital where my son is about to have his cleft lip surgery have told me he has to be spoon fed from a bottle after the surgery until the lip recovers but if I was breast feeding him then I could just continue doing that immediately after surgery. This doesn’t make sense to me, to breast feed the baby still needs to suck a nipple into its mouth and the teats on the bottles I use are not as big as a nipple?

Anyway I just want to know if anyone has successfully bottle feed immediately after cleft lip surgery? Surely its no more stressful on the lip than breast feeding?? and why should I stress my little bub out trying to teach him to spoon feed if its not really necessary and only part of “Protocol”

Eagerly waiting your replies

Hi there,
My baby was 3 months when he had his cleft lip repaired, he fed straight from his bottle in the recovery room and afterwards as well just as normal, all he needed was a smaller teat. I was reasured that this was the thing to do and he would cope fine with it.
He isw now due to have his palate fixed in febuary and they have now said that they do not want him sucking from a bottle as this may affect his op, so now i have to get him onto a non valve ready pour cup or bottle that he cant suck from. May be tricky as he is only 4 months now.
Good luck with the op, you will be fine with a bottle after the first op.

Hi
Same here my son was feeding from his bottle after the repair op and this was encouraged by team and within 2 days he was drinking 5 oz bottles and his lip dont seem to hurting during feeding