English

Abstract

One year hospital based non-randomised trial to evaluate the effect of interventional feeding practices on the growth of cleft lip and palate patients was conducted at K.L.E.S's Hospital, Belgaum, Karnataka state, India. This trial was planned to study the various feeding modalities, the feeding problems, the incidence of morbidities, and the effect of different types of clefts on the growth parameters in control group. At the same time, evaluation of the effect of interventional feeding practices in terms of difference in the incidence of morbidities and the growth parameters between the interventional and control groups was studied. 22 and 33 cleft patients, who satisfied the criteria for the interventional and the control groups respectively, were enrolled for the trial. The feeding problems were quite prevalent in both the groups, with nasal regurgitation being the commonest, followed by vomiting and chocking. Isolated cleft lip did not interfere with breast feeding as all the cases in both the groups practiced direct breast feeding. Cleft palate/lip interfered with the technique of direct breast feeding resulting in the practice of top feeds, commonly with cup and spoon modality even when the mother were eager to breast feed, indicating the less technical difficulties in the cup and spoon feeding modality. Isolated cleft lip did not have statistically significant over the growth parameters in contrast to the combined cleft palate and lip. There were no statistically significant differences in the growth parameters between males and females among different types of clefts in both interventional and control groups. The interventional feeding practices in combined cleft palate and lip cases resulted in statistically significant decrease in various morbidities and also better growth parameters. The use of obturators was not associated with improved growth parameters secondary to small sample size and inherent disadvantages of its application.