Your baby’s cleft palate is repaired! It’s an exciting time, but it was so hard to get the baby to start eating solids before the repair. Many parents struggle with trying to figure out how to feed the baby after the palate surgery. 🍲

Before the cleft palate surgery

Some cleft palate children do better with small, soft foods before the palate repair. If your baby prefers soft foods over purees, the key is to make sure the food is not too smooth but also not too chunky for the little one. Using the back of the fork to mash these foods or a potato masher are perfect. The reason some cleft babies prefer soft foods over pureed are because it is harder for the soft foods to lodge into the cleft area. These foods include, but are not limited to: 

• sweet potato
• pasta
• beans
• vegetables
• meat
• bananas
• pears
• apples
• scrambled eggs

Other babies prefer pureed foods.🥣 In that case, you would just steam or bake the above foods and puree them in a blender. The issue with pureed foods is they tend to go through the cleft and out of the nose. So if you are struggling with this, definitely try softer foods and you can research Baby-Led Weaning.

After the cleft palate surgery

You feel like you’ve finally mastered feeding your baby solid foods, and now you will have to change some things because of the cleft palate surgery.

But don’t worry! It’s only for a few weeks

And, you might find that after the repair, your baby will want to eat pretty much anything! For example, if your baby only wanted solid soft foods before, purees may be an option now that the repair is complete.

The cleft palate repair is a very important step and also a very exciting one.

After the repair, it is crucial that no: 👎

bottles, pacifiers, or fingers

touch the roof of the baby’s mouth. The baby should not chew on anything at all. This information is usually advised for the first 3 weeks, but every doctor is different.

When feeding the baby, use the side of the spoon to drip the liquid into the baby’s mouth so the spoon does not touch the palate. A small cup can also be used to drip the liquid into the baby’s mouth. Also, after each feeding, give the baby water to drink to rinse the surgical site. As always, nothing too hot, as this could cause damage to the surgical site.

First week

• broth
• milk
• juice

Second week

• yogurts
• pureed baby foods
• soft cereals

Third week

• Resume normal foods…
• just be careful!

The no-no’s (splints on the arms) should be worn for about 2 weeks to avoid any fingers in the mouth or the child putting any object in the mouth. The arm restraints must be worn at all times unless your doctor tells you otherwise.

Now for the fun stuff…

Let’s do a recipe!

Babyfoode.com is one of my favorite resources for healthy, nutritious baby food and advice! It is not specifically for cleft babies, but just follow my guidelines above on how to prepare these foods, whether they are pureed or soft. Let’s look at a recipe for a pureed food!