Must be the Law of Series... After this adoption of a child with cleft
palate, I received a phone call yesterday from a mother I saw many months
ago for breastfeeding difficulties. It turned out that Baby had a cleft
in the soft palate only. After a long time of pumping,
breastfeeding finally went well. Baby is now 9 months old and is
scheduled to be operated on next month. Mother has been advised that whe
will not be able to give the breast for 10 days, and does not want to
pump (too time consuming, 'been there, 'done that, not to go throu that
again) but would dearely want to continue breastfeeding. So, she called
the other children hospital in Montreal, where the cleft palate
specialist simply stated that "these kids cannot bf anyway" and could
hardly believe that she was actually doing it (I know, we are in 1996,
but, hey, nobody wants to read the zealotry literature).
The operation: closing the soft palate, by pulling the muscles together.
The hard palate is intact, so no bone graft or whatever. But the mother
is being told that the child will not be able to drink with anything but
a cup for ten days, end of discussion.
How can we help saving that breastfeeding ? Suggestions ? References
(remember, we are talking to the Great Specialist Team here) ?
Thank you all in advance,

Louise Denhez, M.D., M.P.H
Chargee d'enseignement clinique
Departement de medecine sociale et preventive