Transitioning From a Bottle to a Cup to Prepare for Cleft Palate Repair

Posted by Kate

We had to wean our little man off of the bottle and get him drinking from a cup in order to prepare him for his palate repair.   I decided that I wanted him fully transitioned 3 to 4 weeks before his surgery because I didn’t want him coping with the emotion of dropping the bottle at the same time that he was dealing with the pain of surgery.

I started introducing the cup to him when he was about 9 months old.  He continued to have his bottles as usual, but I started offering him a cup at every meal too.  He didn’t drink from it much at first, but that was fine.  The first step is creating familiarity which was definitely happening as he played with his cup.

We got a little more serious about things when he was 10 months old.  We tried several different cups and really encouraged him to drink from each one.  Here are the different cups we tried:

Tommie Tippee Trainer Cup

Munchkin Miracle 360 Trainer Cup

A cup with a hard spout and the valve removed. (It’s very important for the valve to be removed!)

It’s important to choose a cup that doesn’t involve sucking!  Once the palate is repaired these little babies are anatomically capable of suction, however, sucking before the palate has fully healed would be damaging to the palate and painful to the baby.  There are several options out there, so don’t be discouraged if you go through a few different cups before finding one that your baby likes.

He rotated through all of these cups, giving each a turn as the favorite for a short time, but he still didn’t seem ready to commit to any of them.

About 5 weeks before his palate repair I started dropping bottles.  First, we replaced the afternoon bottle with a sippy cup of formula and did that for about a week, with varying levels of success each day.  The next week we dropped the dinner-time bottle, and the third week we dropped the morning bottle.  I continued to give him a bedtime bottle right up to the night before his surgery.  He and I both needed that.  However, the more he was given the sippy cup, the less he wanted anything to do with them, until we tried these cups:

This little beauty is called the Reflo Smart Cup.  These cups helped him to make the switch just in time.  It’s different for every kiddo though, so try a variety of cups until you find the one your baby likes best.  This was the cup that did it for us.

This new way of drinking was a little messy, so it was helpful to have a towel on hand.

This new way of drinking was a little messy.  It was helpful to have a towel on hand.

There were times when I felt concerned that he wouldn’t transition in time, but with patience, persistence, and a few trips to the store to buy yet another kind of cup, we pulled it off in the end.

Psst… don’t forget to bring your baby’s new favorite cup with you to the hospital for palate repair!

 

Read more of the story here:

Our Baby Will be Born With a Cleft Lip and Palate

Our Newborn’s Cleft Lip and Palate

Our Baby’s Cleft Lip Repair

Preparing for Baby’s Cleft Palate Repair

Cleft Palate Repair