Hi Annemaree,

Welcome to Bellybelly, my daughter was born at the monash and we transferred to the Royal Childrens 10 days after she was born. Have you thought of contacting the Childrens to see what they say? I have a team of many kinds working with my daughter including plastics - they are the ones that will be fixing her cleft at 18 months (later than normal due to her having a small jaw), 2 speech paths - 1 for feeding and 1 for speech etc later on and many more for the remainder of her condition. We were there for 11 weeks and although I am still having alot of difficulty feeding my daughter they have been great support and offer regular appointments especially (sp?) the speech path involved with her feeding, unfortunately I think my daughter is a bit slack and a bit of a slow learner, she also has her jaw to deal with. It might be worth a try though? Saves you waiting for Monash? Are you currently feeding her with a special needs bottle, like a Habermann or Chu Chu? If not the cleft pals website sells all types.

If you have any questions of just want to chat the girls here are great and will help out as much as they can

Good Luck.

Deanne.