> The bottle is so uniquely shaped that it is not going to appeal to the
> casual "get me away from this baby" kind of mother. In fact, one
> grandmother refused to use it because it looked "weird." If a mother used
> it, she would most likely rather have baby at the breast than feed with the
> breastbottle in a public place.
I contacted the list-owner of Widesmiles mailing list (Cleft Talk)
because feeding of cleft affected babies was/is one of my personal
interests. I know that the MJ (mead johnson) nurser is sometimes used
by parents of these babies, and is used to squeeze milk into the baby's
mouth (the Haberman is also used, differently). These are the 2 feeding
methods of preference on the mailing list associated with widesmiles.
Most moms who have tried breastfeeding just "don't succeed"...even those
who had successfully bf a previous baby...with these cleft affected
babies. The emphasis on Cleft Talk seems to be to get palate repair
done as late as possible before the child starts talking really (12-18
mos or so), so that some of the most important growth is already done.
I don't know a lot about it myself. I think that the downside of this
is that with a large fissure in the palate the baby would never be able
to latch before palate repair and would be too old to even want to try
(what's that breast thing for anyhow???) after 18 months! I can
understand how many of these moms would give up in desperation, and go
with a Haberman or MJ nurser, and give up pumping milk just to *be* with
their child more (my mom went through this with one child, 25 years ago,
so it's something I can empathise with, though I don't remember the
actual situation, as I was only 15 mos!).
Back to the breastbottle: I suggested that rather than the pointy thing
the MJ nurser calls its "nipple", perhaps a breastbottle would work ok
to squeeze milk out in these cases, with a "softer" feel to it. The
listowner got 4 of them to try, but said she didn't think they'd work
well with cleft babies (I should write back and see if she ever did try
them). She too was concerned about the deflation of the breastbottle,
which she said would hinder the parents in their aim to feed their
baby...i.e. the valve doesn't work well enough/fast enough.
No matter what, there will always be some shocked looks at such a
"contraption": either from the bf camp (what is that??? Why doesn't
she just bf?), or from the "other" camp (that looks too suggestively
like a breast...geez, how indecent). I think that if it had worked for
a cleft baby, and had managed to stay similarily shaped to a breast, in
the time that the baby was waiting for an (early) palate repair, it
might have some merit...but for now, I still use it to demostrate how
the Avent pump works. ;-)
As for feeding in public places, one person I talked to told me this:
"I pumped milk for 2 months for my son, had numerous appointments with
LC's, had successfully bf my older son, and had NO success with the
younger one due to his cleft. I decided to quit pumping because I had
to make a choice: either feed an inferior substance and actually *be*
with my son and hold him and play with him, or be hooked up to a pump
and listen to him scream. I chose to be with him. I think that is more
important for his young age, as I firmly believe in attachment
parenting. I did and still do get stared at in public for bottle
feeding my son (his cleft does not show, it is only of the palate, no
lip involvement), as I am in a place where bf rates are high. People
probably think I chose to formula feed to avoid bf. Sometimes I wish I
could inform them more, but I can't do that to 30 people in a shopping
mall, short of getting up and screaming out a speech on top of a table
in the food fair! So to heck with them! My son is happy and that is
what counts most. I know he would have been healthier had he been
breastfed, but he would have been healthier had he not had a cleft
palate. I tried, I truely did...but I wanted to be with my child, not
with a pump."
All in all...some places you get stared at no matter what you do...be it
bf, bottle feed, or "breastbottle feed".
Fio.
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