About CLAPA's Welcome Packs

CLAPA’s Welcome Packs are a vital part of our charity’s work. We receive no government or NHS funding, so every pack is funded entirely through the generosity of our supporters and fundraisers.

To get your free Welcome Pack, you must:

• Live in the United Kingdom
• Be the parent or carer of a baby born with a cleft, or be requesting one on behalf of a parent or carer
• Have had your baby’s feeding assessment; and 
• Have been advised by a Cleft Nurse in one of the NHS Cleft Teams about your baby’s feeding needs.

CLAPA can only supply one free Welcome Pack per baby. Please do not attempt to request multiple packs or ask for friends or family members to request one on your behalf.

If you are having any difficulties with paying for extra feeding equipment, please talk to your Cleft Nurse. CLAPA supplies extra free-of-charge items to many families in need, but we can only do this on the request of a Cleft Nurse. 

Each Welcome Pack contains two bottles and a set of teats depending on your baby’s needs. There is also some information about cleft and an optional children’s book to help explain cleft to any other children in the family.

Your Cleft Nurse will talk to you about what to request in your Welcome Pack after your baby has been born and a feeding assessment completed.

You should not request a pack until you have been advised to do so by your Cleft Nurse.

As well as bottles and teats, Welcome Packs come with a selection of information leaflets to help you at this stage of your cleft journey.

Your Cleft Nurse will assess your baby’s feeding needs after they are born. You will be told which bottles and teats your baby needs. You should always talk to your Cleft Nurse if you have any questions or concerns about the bottles and teats your baby needs.

CLAPA staff are not medically trained and cannot give advice around feeding equipment.

Please do not order or ask for any feeding equipment which has not been recommended to you by a Cleft Nurse. Misuse of these bottles and teats can be dangerous to your baby. it’s important to only use the recommended equipment in the way your Cleft Nurse has instructed you.

Every baby’s needs are different, and it is very difficult to predict which bottles and teats will work best for a baby until they are born. When your baby is born, your Cleft Nurse will carry out a feeding assessment to determine which bottles and teats you need.

We can only supply one Welcome Pack per baby, so if you get your Welcome Pack in advance and it turns out your baby needs different equipment, we will not be able to send you another one.

We may supply Welcome Packs before a baby is born if a Cleft Nurse specifically requests one in exceptional circumstances, or if your baby is due during CLAPA’s ‘Christmas closure’ period.

We understand that you want to feel ready to feed your baby in advance.

Remember that:

• Not all babies born with a cleft require specialist feeding equipment and some can feed using non-specialist bottles or be breast-fed. 
• You could contact your cleft team to talk about any concerns or questions you have about feeding your baby, including getting bottles in advance.
• Your hospital or Cleft Nurse may be able to provide you with some feeding equipment to use right after your baby is born.
• You can buy feeding equipment through our shop before your baby is born, and we will accept returns or exchanges of unopened, unused equipment within 90 days. You should not use any equipment which you have not been told to use by your Cleft Nurse.

• Welcome packs are sent out by Royal Mail 24 hour tracked delivery 

• Welcome packs are sent out Monday to Friday (we don’t ship on weekends) 

• We aim to send out a welcome pack within 24 hours of receiving the request but requests received on a Friday may not be shipped until a Monday 

• If you have any concerns over the delivery timeframe please email [email protected] and we will do what we can to help 

Further information on postage and deliveries 

Yes, but you need to order the extra items separately through our online shop.

When requesting your Welcome Pack, let us know in the ‘other information’ field at the end of the form that you are planning to order extra items.

When we process your order, we will refund any postage costs you have had to pay.

Please don’t delay in placing your order through our shop, as we can only refund your postage if your order comes through before we have sent out your Welcome Pack. If you’re at all concerned about this, please email us at [email protected] to let us know.

If you are facing financial hardship and are concerned about paying for extra items, please talk to your Cleft Nurse. CLAPA supplies extra free-of-charge items to many families in need, but we can only do this on the request of a Cleft Nurse or other clinician such as your GP.

It is important that you don’t request a Welcome Pack until your Cleft Nurse has assessed your baby’s feeding needs. This is so we can ensure we send you the correct items.

We can replace faulty items in Welcome Packs free of charge (see ‘refunds and replacements’).

If you ordered the wrong Welcome Pack, please contact us on [email protected] to discuss whether we can arrange a replacement, additional charges may apply.