Babies born with a unilateral cleft of the lip and palate (UCLP) and with an iCP were recruited for
this study before completion of the national reorganisation of UK cleft services. All participating
hospitals were confident that their recommended bottle and teat was successful for feeding babies
with a cleft. Each hospital used a different bottle, recommended only one bottle/teat type and
received more than 20 new baby referrals per annum. Ethics approval was granted by the Multi-
Centre Regional Ethics Committee. Fifty mothers were invited to participate as soon after referral
to the cleft centres as appropriate, and informed consent was obtained from those that agreed.
CP types were divided into either isolated clefts of the soft palate (iCP incomplete) or isolated
clefts of soft with one- to two-thirds of the hard palate (iCP complete). Unilateral clefts of the lip
and palate were divided into two types: incomplete (IUCLP) and complete (CUCLP). Babies
diagnosed with syndromes or respiratory problems (i.e. Robin Sequence) were excluded from the
study. Table 1 shows babies’ recruitment characteristics according to cleft type and gender. The
median age of babies recruited was one week (range birth to nine weeks). The median gestational
age was 40 weeks (range 30–40 weeks). The median birth weight was 3.3 kg (range 1.48–4.36 kg).