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