Questionnaire evaluation of feeding methods for cleft lip and palate neonates.

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.