
However, feeding an infant with a cleft lip or an open palate can be extremely difficult.
Our experience with thousands of children with cleft palate shows that only a handful of these children have had even a partial success feeding directly at the breast…Cleft Palate Foundation, USA
In our research of 35 mothers of cleft infants, we found 95% of them had major problems to feed their baby and the problems increased when they tried to handle these problems by themselvesCleft Palate Foundation, Netherlands

Even though many mothers have faced these problems, most doctors do not have the resources to help. They rarely warn parents about the difficulties they will encounter, nor teach about alternative feeding methods. These methods may include using specially designed bottles, spoon-feeding or closing the cleft with special tape when the child is sucking.


Feeding infants. Helping families with practical solutions on how to breast feed, giving free bottles (specifically adapted to cleft children) when necessary.
The Nutrition guidance program for underweight and malnourished cleft children is another successful program adopted by Cleft Care Foundation Indonesia over the years. We provide free normal milk to families who can’t afford to buy milk and also free high calorie nutritional formula for underweight/malnourished cleft infants/children, nursing them to an ideal weight fit and safe enough to receive cleft repair surgery.

Monitoring calls – Helping cleft children’s parents to improve their children’s health condition before corrective surgery.