Spitting up and mouth sores

Every baby spits up. But with cleft babies, it's a little different. First you need to find a formula that work well with your baby. I had a doctor tell me that they have never seen a cleft baby who didn't have bad acid reflux so I would pick something sensitive and gentle. My personal favorite was Enfamil Gentlease for gassy and fussy babies. When cleft babies spit up its not uncommon for the milk to come out of their nose. Don't be alarmed when this happens. It doesn't harm the baby in any way, it probably just more uncomfortable.

Mouth sores are very common for cleft babies too. Depending on the cleft palate, the nipple from the bottle you are using will put pressure on the palate where babies without clefts don't. This was the worst couple days of my life with her so far. I was so worried that it was thrush because she had whitish pockets on the roof of her mouth. I could tell it was very painful for her to eat and it broke my heart. We took her to the doctors as fast as we could and they just said its sores from the nipple rubbing and putting pressure on her cleft. They told me that it would soon develop a callous and she would be able to eat again pain free soon enough.
I didn't believe them so I took to the blogs and found out that everything he said was true. But it was so hard for my little one to eat. So I would put the nipple on both sides of her mouth, avoiding the sores and it was tough but we were able to feed. As hard as it is its important to still try and feed them over the sores so it can harden up. It took about a week before things were back to normal. But switching to a softer nipple helps a lot. Here is a example of what they looked like.