A Retrospective Study Identifying Breast Milk Feeding Disparities in Infants with Cleft Palate.

Background: Breast milk represents the optimal substrate for all infants, including those with a cleft palate for whom growth may be compromised.

Objectives: Frequency of breast milk feeding at the breast and per feeder (bottle, cup, enteral tube) in infants with cleft palate was determined and compared with rates reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A secondary aim was to review growth status of the infants.

Design: This study represents a 5-year retrospective review using the electronic medical record.

Participants And Setting: Patients were ≤12 months old at the time of the initial, presurgical encounter after a diagnosis of cleft palate had been made and were treated at one of two pediatric cleft palate and craniofacial centers in Ohio between September 30, 2010, and September 30, 2015.

Main Outcome Measures: Outcomes measured were breast milk use, reported by mothers and documented in patients' electronic medical records, chronological body weight, as well as weight for length and weight-for-age z scores and percentiles.

Statistical Analyses Performed: Descriptive statistics included median with interquartile range and frequency with percentages. World Health Organization z scores were estimated using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention programs for weight, weight for length, and weight for age at first visit. Comparisons of infants treated at the two hospitals were done using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test or the χ test.

Results: Breast milk consumption (26 infants were breastfed and 84 received human breast milk administered with a device) was 29.5%, markedly below the 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention national statistics for ever receiving breast milk (81%). Anthropometric findings included z scores of -0.95 and -0.42 for weight for age and weight for length, respectively.

Conclusions: Infants with cleft palate were seldom breastfed, nor was breast milk frequently used. In addition, median weight-for-age and weight-for-length z scores suggest that growth of infants with cleft palate was below normative standards.