title: Questionnaire evaluation of feeding methods for cleft lip and palate neonates.
abstract: A questionnaire evaluation was undertaken of feeding methods used by the mothers of 25 neonates with cleft lip and/or palate. Most parents had problems feeding their babies, both with the quantity of food taken and especially with the time taken to feed; even after a period of 2 months over a quarter were still having problems with the quantity of feed and a third had not established a regular feeding pattern. Just over a half needed to change the feeding method from the one with which they started. Twelve of the 25 mothers tried to breast-feed but none of them was successful. The Haberman feeder was the most popular, being used by 18 mothers. An acrylic feeding plate was considered to be helpful by 6 of 11 mothers of babies with complete clefts but by only 1 of 9 mothers of babies with secondary palate clefts. Almost all the mothers were dissatisfied with the information they had received while in hospital and with the back-up when they went home.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery & Orthodontics, Royal Preston Hospital, England.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Trenouth
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Campbell
mesh_terms: D001903:Bottle Feeding / Q000295:instrumentation*; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002971:Cleft Lip; D002972:Cleft Palate; D004750:Enteral Nutrition / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D013391:Sucking Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires