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Babies born with cleft lip and/or palate need to feed efficiently to grow and thrive. If a baby has a cleft lip only and not a cleft palate, he/she should be able to use a standard bottle/nipple or breastfeed successfully. Babies born with a cleft lip and palate or cleft palate only will likely require use of a specialty bottle system to allow for efficient extraction of expressed breast milk or formula. Babies with cleft palate are at risk for poor weight gain without use of a specialty bottle system. Rare success has been documented with breastfeeding of infants with cleft of the soft and/or hard palate.
Le Leche League International cautions, “Except in rare cases, a baby with a cleft palate cannot get all the milk he needs by breastfeeding alone. An opening in the palate makes it impossible for the baby to seal off his mouth and make the suction typically used to keep the breast (or bottle) in place and pull the nipple to the back of his mouth. Over time, lactation consultants have found that feeding exclusively at the breast is a difficult goal for all but a few babies with uncorrected cleft palates."
At UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s Cleft-Craniofacial Center, a speech-language pathologist will evaluate your baby's feeding and swallowing skills at an initial visit. At that time, a specialty bottle may be trialed if not being used already, and special feeding techniques may be discussed with the baby's parents. We will work with you to promote feeding success and reduce stress surrounding your baby's feeding.
The bottles listed below are available for you at our Center. Please see the description for each bottle system to learn about each. Our speech pathologists will make a recommendation for which bottle and nipple system will work best for your child based on type of cleft they have. These recommendations are based on our clinical use and experience here at UPMC Children's Hospital.
If your baby begins exhibiting signs and symptoms of aspiration such as: congestion in the chest, coughing, gagging, choking, wet/noisy breathing, or a wet/gurgly vocal quality with feeding, please contact your Cleft-Craniofacial team.
If your baby begins exhibiting signs and symptoms of aspiration such as: congestion in the chest, coughing, gagging, choking, wet/noisy respirations, or a wet/gurgly vocal quality with feeding, please contact your Cleft-Craniofacial team.
Please do not hesitate to contact the Cleft-Craniofacial Center with questions about your baby's feeding or to schedule an appointment.
412-692-8650
Children's Hospital's main campus is located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood. Our main hospital address is:
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh One Children’s Hospital Way 4401 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15224
In addition to the main hospital, Children's has many convenient locations in other neighborhoods throughout the greater Pittsburgh region.
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Interested in giving to Children's Hospital? Support the hospital by making a donation online, joining our Heroes in Healing monthly donor program, or visiting our site to learn about the other ways you can give back.