using the Great Ormond Street Measurement of Infant Feeding (Masarei et al.,

Objective: Feeding difficulties are reported widely in infants with cleft lip and/ or palate. There is, however, a paucity of objective information about the feeding patterns of these infants. This study compared patterns of feeding in infants with unrepaired cleft lip and palate with healthy noncleft infants of a similar age. Setting: North Thames Regional Cleft Centre. The noncleft cohort was re-cruited from West Middlesex University Hospital, a general hospital with similar demographics. Participants: Fifty newborn infants with nonsyndromic complete unilateral cleft lip and palate or a cleft of the soft and at least two thirds of the hard palate who were referred to the North Thames Regional Cleft Centre partici-pated. Parents of 20 randomly selected, noncleft infants agreed to participate. Main Outcome Measures: Feeding patterns were rated using the Neonatal Oral Motor Assessment Scale. Additional objective information was collecte