In the most plastic surgical literature, sucking in general is discouraged on the basis that this muscular activity will jeopardize the cleft lip repair and feeding is recommended with a spoon, cup or asepto syringe.
Although we had recommended spoo...
In the most plastic surgical literature, sucking in general is discouraged on the basis that this muscular activity will jeopardize the cleft lip repair and feeding is recommended with a spoon, cup or asepto syringe.
Although we had recommended spoon feeding postoperatively, we were made aware that some mothers had, in fact, bottle-fed their infants with no apparent harm.
So we performed this study to define the effect of bottle-feeding or breast feeding on the outcome of cleft lip surgery. 30 infants were fed by means of a spoon for three weeks, and 30 started bottle-feeding or breast-feeding as soon as they were fully awake following operation.
There were no statistically significant difference in the complication rate between the two groups.