Laura,
I've been working with a mom in this situation. Best advice I can give is
to have her keep working with getting baby to breast, but also to pump or
hand express to get her supply built up. The mother I'm working with didn't
present with a problem until 2 weeks out, by then baby's weak suck had
seriously threatened her supply. She got good results by having baby sit
upright while she manipulated the breast tissue in his mouth to form a good
seal. She was fortunate in that she had breastfed a previous baby with a
cleft lip and also had very long nipples, this enabled somewhat of a seal
for the cleft in baby's palate (as well as the lip). The milk needed to
come quickly and directly into the back of baby's mouth, in order for him
to control the flow and prevent it going up into his nose. I believe if we
had been able to do this early on she would have had greater success than
she had. Good luck to you both.Mary
Mary A. Banaszewski, RN, IBCLC

On Jan. 29 Laura Hart wrote:
> What are the chances that a baby with a complete unilateral cleft lip &
palate
> will successfully breastfeed? The surgeon said it not too likely, start
mom
> pumping & feed with Haberman. He did suggest that baby continue to be
offered
> the breast. Baby was not quite 12 hrs old at that time & had not
successfully
> latched on. I have limited experience with this. I have seen a couple of
> babies with cleft lip breastfeed successfully, but I understand that is
> common.