Frequently Asked Questions

you must contact us or any other cleft surgeon soon after the birth of the child. Do not wait till the child grows to the age of surgery. Initial consultations are extremely important for understanding the feeding process for the baby, to rule out any other problem and to understand the treatment process.

Keep the cleft side of the lip towards your breast so that the defect in the lip is blocked by your breast. When you feed from the other breast, do not turn the baby, but just move him to that side ,still keeping the cleft side of the lip towards your breast. Assist him by expressing your milk out into the child’s mouth.

You may try expressing out your breast milk into her mouth while she is loosely holding on to the breast. It is always preferable to squeeze out milk directly into the mouth of the baby than to express it in a katori or pump and then feed the baby.

You should express your milk directly into the mouth of your child by squeezing your breast. Let the child hold on to your breast. It is important for continuation of lactation and ejection of milk.

A. If you are feeding a powder or formula milk- be sure of exact dilution. The commonest mistake is to over dilute it or do it without measuring. One provided measureful/spoonful of milk should be added to 30 ml of water. Similarly 2 measures to 60 ml or 5 measures to 150 ml of water. B. Water should be sterilised by boiling it for 10 minutes and then cooling it and keeping it in a clean sterilised bottle or thermos. C. All utensils, bottles must be boiled for 20 minutes and kept covered. It’s a good idea to have 6 sets of each and boil them together. When all are used, they can be boiled again. D. Do not touch inner side of the vessel, utensil,katori and Milk with your fingers. When you do this ,thousands of disease causing bacteria are transferred from your fingers to the milk. Wash your hands with soap and water before feeding the baby. E. If you are using cow’s, buffalo’s or goat’s milk-Do NOT add water to make it dilute and ENSURE that you are getting pure milk only.

Que. My breasts are not forming milk anymore . How should I feed the baby? Ans. Now you should feed the baby on Powder, formula milk or cow’s buffalo’s or goat’s milk.