The infant with a cleft palate presents a difficult feeding problem. The medicine dropper, the spoon and the Breck feeding method are those most frequently employed. These methods are tedious and in many instances cause a baby to become fatigued and undernourished. The use of a nipple with an apron attachment which partly closes the cleft has not proved satisfactory. Feeding the baby by gavage can be done only by a specially trained person.
I have a method whereby the baby with a cleft palate can be fed from a bottle and an ordinary nipple as quickly and as easily as the normal baby. This is accomplished with the aid of an accurately fitted dental plate which is inserted prior to each feeding. A version of this idea, basically the same, has been used abroad with success.1
The plate is made with a stone model obtained from an impression