Aleitamento materno em pacientes portadores de fissuras labiopalatinas.

Abstract

The cleft lip and cleft palate are very common malformations that affect the middle third of the face. The family, especially the mother, who is responsible for feeding the baby, is afraid and has doubts and difficulties to perform breastfeeding in babies with cleft lip and cleft palate. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether mothers of babies with cleft lip and palate are receiving guidance on breastfeeding and whether the type of fissure interferes with this process. A total of 114 mothers of 0-3 year-old infants with cleft lip and cleft palate treated in FUNDEF were evaluated, 68.42% of them presented some type of difficulty in breastfeeding, 66.66% received instructions on how to breastfeed, 64,91% used breast milk exclusively as food, but only 13.5% used breast milk for 6 months or more. Regarding artificial feeding methods, 37.5% of the mothers used the nasogastric tube, 52.77% bottle and only 1.38% used the cup (a gold standard method). The types of fissures were also analyzed, being the most prevalent the unilateral transforam (30,70%) and that being more complex and reaching a greater amount of structures causes a greater difficulty in the processes of suction and deglutition of the baby. It was possible to conclude from this study that mothers are receiving guidelines on breastfeeding in the multidisciplinary team, but they are not enough to encourage and stimulate the practice. The type of fissure is an important factor in the breastfeeding process, the greater its complexity the greater the number of mothers who reported having had difficulty.