The Adventures of Feeding

Unfortunately there aren't any clearly defined rules for feeding babies with clefts. It's a lot of trial and error with no clear-cut right or wrong answers. The most important thing is to keep trying different things until you find something that your baby does well with. Trust that you and your baby make a great team and that you've got what it takes to give him or her what they need.

The Mead Johnson squeeze bottle from the hospital and a nuk nipple worked great for Isaac. Five days after Isaac was born we took him to the Craniofacial Center at the Children's Hospital to see the feeding specialist. They gave me a specialty nipple called the pidgeon (shown at the bottom of the page.)

What seemed like the greatest idea in the world was a continual source of frustration. He would feed well with it one time and then the next not get anything out of it. Thankfully I decided to ditch the "great idea" and went back to the Mead Johnson bottle and the nuk nipple. To help feeding go quicker I made the hole bigger in the nuk nipple.

I kept all of the supplies and nipples I aquired along the way and it turned out to my advantage. Later, after surgery number one, Isaac learned to use the pidgeon nipple and loved it. I loved it too--no more squeezing!!

I was eventually able to switch to a storebought nipple that resembled his pacifier. Because I was controlling the flow of his milk by squeezing I bought him a faster flowing nipple designed for older babies and didn't have to fuss with making the hole on this nipple bigger.

Here is the pidgeon nipple. It's great when it works properly because it allows the baby to control the flow of milk on their own so mom and dad don't have to squeeze all the time. Another benefit to this nipple is that it makes it easier for others to feed the baby making it possible for mom and dad to have a break.

After Isaac learned this nipple later (somethime after surgery #1) I realized why he had such difficulty with it as a newborn. A couple of the nipples I came home from the clinic with were defective. The vent hole wasn't cut properly and that was the reason for my frustration with them.

Stay flexible and do whatever works!!