Sharon,
The Haberman Feeder is not intended for use purely by premies.  Its intended
use is for those infants with hypotonia related to neurological deficits, or
as you mentioned, cleft palate.  There exists a physiological reason for the
inability to form a seal around an artificial teat, hypotonia, but the infant
exhibits a mature respiratory drive, and therefore can tolerate the bolus of
fluid that is squeezed via the Haberman and delivered by the person feeding
the infant.  I've used it with infants who have experienced grade III-IV
intraventricular bleeds, or with meconium-aspiration babies who have been on
ECMO.  These infants are severely compromised neurologically, but usually are
full-term.  The growing premie as you see at your place of work do not
require Habermans.  For one thing, these babies need to be spending time at
their mother's breasts, and secondly, the immature respiratory drive in the
premie causes the premie to not tolerate the delivery of the bolus of fluid
passively via the person feeding the infant.  It is necessary for the premie
to learn to self-pace its suck-swallow patterns on the bottle when
supplementation is needed, and the Haberman does not teach the premie to do
this.  Furthermore, the Haberman potentially can override the premie's
"shut-down" signals, and thus can further stress him or her, leading to
either poor weight gain as a result of burning up calories at feedings of
this nature, apnea, or feeding intolerances.
I'll be glad to talk to you about this subject further if you'd like....
Carol Chamblin, RN, MS, IBCLC
Breast 'N Baby Lactation Services, Inc.
Geneva, Il

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