The Haberman bottle is a great bottle for babies with cleft lips and or cleft palates. By filling the reservoir on this bottle it makes it easy for cleft babies to get the flow that they need, while they are unable to create good suction on their own. This bottle requires next to no stimulation to make breastmilk or formula to come out. I have only ever used this bottle at work, but I am a pediatric nurse so I feel like I have a fair number of cases to base this review on. Parents find this bottle very easy to use, and I find it very easy to instruct them. The cleaning of the nipple and reservoir is very easy. Oftentimes people only have one or two, but because of the ease of cleaning it seems like enough. At a time that is difficult for a lot of parents as they adjust to life with a cleft lip and or palate, I think this bottle is one thing that makes life a little bit easier.

Katied87

Undisclosed

 Having a baby is such a happy time but having a bilaterial cleft lip and palate baby can be a challenge. My little girl was born one of the worst cases of bilaterial cleft lip and palste here in the United States.  Through Genecology studies she is the only one in our families to ever have this condition.    This bottle looks easy but its not. Momma and baby have to work as a team. To use the bottle you have to gently hold babys chin caressing it while using the other hand to squeeze milk into the chamber and then carefully realease it not to choke baby.  The morning my little girl was born my wife began using this bottle to teach my daughter how to eat. It was a very long process as my daughter was so severe all my wife could do was talk to her and patientally wait for her to realise she had to swollow. These bottles are made so you control milk flow. My daughter could not do whatnormal babies do and that is suck.     My wife used an dropper to let her taste the milk and that evening she was drinking from the bottle very very slowly. For the first two months of my little girls life my wife was always slowly feeding her almost all day. Its really hard having a baby like this as you never know if shes getting enogh to eat. Thats why my wife kept the bottle near her mouth all the time,  It would take my little girl 2 hours to drink one of these bottles. We never had help for her as no body in the community had any experience with such a severe case,   My daughter had her first surgery at 5 days old. She was only allowed to be on the bottle until she was 3 months old. At 3 months old it was still taking her 2 to 2and a half hours to drink the whole bottle. I do not know how my wife did it but her surgenes wanted her on a free flo cup at 3mths old my wife only had a couple of days to teach her how to drink free flo and then once she started cup drinking that 2 hours then became 4,   I highly recommend this bottle for your baby I was able to use it fantastically with my severe child . my daughter is 8 now and has 25 surgeries with another one coming up next week.   I just want to say to any parent with feeding problems using this bottle or feeding problems at any age baby on up please dont be alone lke we were  there is hekp out there now and they can help you lisa is the one you talk to for help feeding your baby at cleftline.org

DustinD

Bemidji, MN

This Haberman special nipple,valve and collar system fits on the Medela bottle and on any other standard wide-mouthed bottle. The nipple has a reservoir which holds the formula or the expressed breast milk.  By turning the bottle so that one of the three marks on the nipple is upwards, you can control the flow of the milk: slow, medium or fast. You can squeeze on the sides of the nipple reservoir to help your baby get the milk. Since a cleft baby cannot suck but must sort of chew or bite at the nipple to get the milk to flow into his mouth, a regulat nipple just won't work. The nipple comes in two sizes, regular and preemie, Using these special nipples will probably keep you from having to have a feeding tube put in. Nothing else worked for us. A bit pricey because all that chewing on it eventually wears out the cross-cut opening in the nipple and it needs to be replaced. But if your baby needs a special nipple because he cannot suck from the  breast, this is the one.

dozzie

Maynard, MA