Amel Eltayeb¹*, Asim Satti² and Haithem Elhadi Babiker³

¹1Assistant Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Nile University, Sudan
²Assistant Professor of Restorative Dentistry, University of Science and Technology, India
³Associate Professor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, USA

*Corresponding Author: Amel Eltayeb, Assistant Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Nile University, Sudan.

Received: November 19, 2021; Published: December 23, 2021

Abstract

Background and Purpose: The most common problems that cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) patients in Sudan present with are prolonged feeding times and an inadequate nutritional intake. This study was undertaken to investigate Sudanese mothers' knowledge and experiences of having a child born with CLP as well how mothers receive support from professionals.

Methods: A survey of 100 mothers who have a child with CLP was carried out between February and March 2017. These mothers attended a CLP campaign at the Khartoum Teaching Dental Hospital (KTDH) for surgical correction of their child’s cleft deformity. A questionnaire was administered which sought out socio-demographic information, mothers’ knowledge and attitude towards feeding the child, and availability of a specialized feeding bottle.

Results: A total of 100 mothers were included in this study. Half of the mothers (50%) had breastfeeding difficulties at the beginning of the child’s life. A significant correlation was found between the child’s defect and the feeding techniques used by the mothers. None of the cleft palate patients (0%) received breast feeding. Of all mothers, 51% had heard about the special feeding bottle for CLP patients and only 13% from that subset have used it. A significant correlation was also found between mothers’ level of education and their awareness of the existence of a specialized bottle (p-value 0.001).

Conclusion: This study concluded that Sudanese mothers do not receive adequate information from health care providers regarding feeding techniques for their children with CLP. Specialized cleft feeding bottles are not readily available for cleft babies. Health educational campaigns would be beneficial in improving the general understanding of the feeding techniques regarding a patient with CLP.

Keywords: Cleft Lip; Palate; Mother

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Citation

Citation: Amel Eltayeb., et al. “Mothers’ Struggle and Knowledge Towards Feeding a Child with a Cleft Lip and Palate". Acta Scientific Dental Sciences 6.1 (2022): 61-67.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Amel Eltayeb., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.