Background: Cleft lip and cleft palate are the most common craniofacial anomalies affecting approximately 2.49 of every 1,000 children born in North-east of Thailand. Srinagarind Hospital has 100-150 cases of cleft lip each year. Children with cleft lip and palate need surgical procedures as soon as possible. After lip repair the normal recommendation is not using bottle or breast feeding for 2 weeks to avoid tension at the sutured area during sucking and possible cause of wound dehiscence. So this is quite complicated for the parents, and patients feel frustrated, cry, and move their head around, because of hunger which cannot easily be satisfied. Previous research found that sucking does not cause wound dehiscence, but mentioned no detail about severity of cleft.
Objective: Primary objective is to compare surgical wound dehiscence between breast feeding/bottle and spoon/syringe feeding after lip repair.
Material and Method: This is an experimental study: non-inferiority trials study. The population is the patients with cleft lip who underwent lip repair in Inpatient Department 3C, Srinagarind Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University. The study period is during May 2010-February 2013. The total sample size in the present study is 192 participants, 96 cases breast/bottle feeding, 96 cases spoon/syringe feeding. The wound dehiscence rate was analyzed by Z-test. Parents’ satisfaction is a qualitative data and was analyzed through content analysis.
Results: No statistical significant difference between breast/bottle and spoon/syringe groups (p-value = 0.320, 95% confidence interval -0.031-0.010). Parents were more satisfied to feed children by breast/bottle and patients were more relaxed with breast/bottle feeding.
Conclusion: Breast/bottle feeding and syringe/spoon feeding have the same result on the surgical wound. Breast/bottle feeding are not causes of wound dehiscence.

Keywords: Breast/bottle feeding, Wound dehiscence, Cleft-lip repair