Breastfeeding after cleft surgery

[KMC92]

Hi all,

My little one has surgery for his submucous cleft palate in 6 weeks.

For the last 6 weeks I have been breastfeeding and topping up with pumped breast milk as he was struggling with weight gain.

His latch isn't great but I'm expecting that to improve with the palate surgery. The other challenge I have is that he's getting increasingly fussy due to flow preference so I having to rock him to keep him calm before a let down.

I wanted to know if anyone had experience of going EBF post surgery? Feeding is taking up such a big part of my life, breastfeeding, pumping every 6 hours and bottle feeding. With every feed causing him some form of unhappiness whether it's flow preference or bottle rejection. Another 6 weeks (that's just getting to the surgery) feels like a long time, but I am really keen to get there.

Hoping there are some success stories out there 💛

Sounds like you're doing an amazing job! I don't have any experience of this but I found the UK breastfeeding support Facebook page extremely useful when I had issues breastfeeding so might be worth asking on there, they have lots of knowledge people.

Hi, my little one had a cleft lip and palate. His cleft was very wide though so he couldn't breastfeed at all. I found he rejected the bottle completely after his palate operation too. Are you on the cleft facebook group? You might find people there with experiences of breastfeeding a baby with a cleft palate. You are both doing really well. Not many babies with a cleft can breastfeed at all.

Since he can already latch and feed pretty well all things considered, have you looked at a supplemental nursing system like the Medela one? Not many people have heard of them until they hear of someone else using one.

It's a bottle with milk in (the supplement) and a thin tube you tape near your nipple that the baby sucks on while they breastfeed. It would cut down on time for you as you can get your pumped milk in at the same time as breastfeeding, and if your baby is happier at the breast than the bottle that would work great. It'll also increase stimulation to your boobs so should help with supply as well.

I am a nurse on a ward that looks after babies post cleft surgery, it's really really rare for babies with clefts to be breast fed. So can't really offer any advice. But I'd still offer the breast and tip up if need be. Many babies refuse the bottle as well. So getting him used to a sippy cup
Is a good idea. As they will often take that as it's easier. They will also often take milk from a syringe.
Make sure he is topped up with painkillers. We often find that they need a dose of Oramorph about 8pm as the local anaesthetic wears off.
Also get him used to saline drips up his nose. As he will get congested.
PM me if you have any other questions!