Feeding service policies and FAQ

You can buy feeding equipment recommended by NHS Cleft Nurses on CLAPA’s website shop at CLAPA.com/Shop

Similar feeding equipment may be available from other shops, but it’s important to double-check that this will be suitable for your child, as there are often small differences which may prevent other equipment from working as well.

You should always check with your Cleft Nurse before trying any new feeding equipment with your baby.

Because of the specialist nature of this equipment, it is much more expensive for CLAPA to buy, even at wholesale rates.

In some cases (like with the MAM bottles), the equipment is manufactured specifically for CLAPA at a significant cost.

We run this service at a loss and subsidise the cost of this equipment to help keep prices as low as possible for families, but we are a small charity and do not have the infrastructure or resources of large retailers.

If you are having any difficulties in paying for feeding equipment, please contact your Cleft Nurse. CLAPA regularly sends out extra free-of-charge equipment for families in need, but we can only do this if your Cleft Nurse asks us to.

We review the prices of feeding equipment as part of our budget-setting processes each year. If prices change, they will usually do so in April, but we may change prices at any time if we deem it necessary to maintain this service

Our website will always list the most up-to-date prices; these override any prices listed in printed or downloaded catalogues or price sheets. We do not accept responsibility for errors or delays caused by organisations or individuals placing orders using the wrong prices, though we will attempt to get in touch to resolve these issues where possible.

Other than the free Welcome Packs provided to new families, and any extra free-of-charge equipment provided to vulnerable families, CLAPA cannot supply free samples of feeding equipment.

If you want a sample of a CLAPA Welcome Pack for educational or other purposes, contact us at [email protected] and we may be able to supply one at our discretion, but we will ask you to pay £50 to cover the cost of the equipment included.

Shipping is free of charge for orders over £30, or for any items ordered at the same time as your Welcome Pack.

If you’re buying items at the same time as your Welcome Pack, please email us at [email protected] or add a note in the ‘Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?’ section at the end of the online Welcome Pack order form.

For orders under £30 within the United Kingdom, postage is in line with Royal Mail First Class Small Parcel prices for franked mail, which is currently £5.10.

We understand this is expensive for many families. As we are a small charity without the infrastructure of large retailers, this is the best rate we can offer now. We are currently working on alternative shipping options which will be available at a lower cost and will make these available as soon as possible.

Royal Mail First Class post often arrives the following working day, but it may take up to five working days for delivery, or longer during busy periods like before Christmas.

The parcel will very likely be too large to fit through your letterbox, so someone must be home to receive the delivery. See below for more tips.

CLAPA usually processes and dispatches orders on Mondays and Thursdays; you will get an email notification when your order is on its way to you. We work hard to send out orders as soon as possible, but there may be delays of several days during particularly busy periods.

If your order is urgent, please email us at [email protected] quoting your order number and we will put it at the top of our list.

Unfortunately, Royal Mail First Class post does not include tracking information or delivery slots. We are not able to find or give updates on the location of your parcel.

We are actively working on offering new shipping methods, including tracked shipping, to families. We will make this available as soon as we can.

The parcel will very likely be too large for your letterbox, so someone will need to be at home to receive it.

If you know you will not be home, or will have difficulties accepting the delivery, you can provide an alternative delivery address when making your order, such as a friend or neighbour. You can also ask us to add a note for the postal worker to put it in a designated ‘safe place’ like your recycling bin, but they’re not guaranteed to do this, and you’ll risk it being stolen by passers-by.

If you’re out during the day, you can leave a note on your door asking the delivery person to leave it with a neighbour (please include their house number). Also, keep an eye on your wheelie bins, recycling boxes, or other communal areas, as parcels are sometimes placed there. Please check these spots daily if you’re waiting for a delivery and have not been at home.

You can contact your local delivery office to arrange redelivery or collect a missed parcel, but

Royal Mail typically makes two delivery attempts, after this it’s your responsibility to rearrange delivery or collect the parcel from your local delivery office. It will usually be left there for 18 days before being returned to us.

First class post often arrives the next working day, but it can take up to five working days or even longer during especially busy periods.

We may have attempted to contact you about your order but have been unable to reach you. Please check your email inbox (including junk mail) for a message from our team.

If it’s been over five working days (excluding weekends and public/bank holidays) since we dispatched your parcel and there has been no delivery attempt (i.e. you haven’t received a red ‘Something for you’ card), we will usually offer you a free replacement parcel.

If there are other reasons which may explain this delay (such as postal strikes, festive season backlogs in the postal service, etc.), we reserve the right to extend this period to up to 15 working days.

To request a replacement parcel, please contact us at [email protected] quoting your order number and providing your full delivery address so we can double-check our records.

If your original parcel turns up after we have sent you a replacement, you can either:

• Return it (or the replacement parcel) to us by crossing out the delivery address and circling the return address. We’ll then put it back into stock so another family can benefit.
• Keep the items, but please pay for them by making an identical order through our website shop and contacting us to let us know what has happened. We run our feeding service at a loss to ensure every family gets the equipment they need, and this will help us to keep our prices as low as possible.

See our website shop for the latest prices and equipment codes.

Please send a purchase order with the correct carriage charge included (see below) and item prices to [email protected]

If your purchasing department does not require carriage charge to be included on the purchase order please inform us of this at the time of placing the order

You do not need to add VAT to your purchase order. If you have included VAT but the purchase order is otherwise correct, we will process your order and invoice you for the amount chargeable without VAT.

NHS Trusts have various Terms and Conditions which we do our best to follow, but please ensure you highlight any unusual clauses or specific delivery instructions when placing the order.

If you want to order free-of-charge items such as posters, leaflets, or certain other resources, you can contact us directly at [email protected], or complete this form.

All NHS orders are sent either by tracked and signed delivery, or via a courier service. Occasionally, small, low-value packages will be sent via Royal Mail First Class post or Special Delivery (signed but not tracked).

We can send tracking information on demand – emailing [email protected] is the easiest way to request this.

If there are errors with your purchase order, we will contact you to try and resolve these using the contact details on the purchase order. We cannot dispatch your items unless we receive a full, complete purchase order.

Please add a postage or carriage charge of £25 to any Purchase Orders.

When we send the invoice for your order, we will only charge you what it cost us to send the items, which is usually less than £25.

Orders for exclusively free-of-charge items such as posters, certain leaflets and other resources, have their postage costs covered by CLAPA. You do not need a purchase order to request these, simply complete this form or contact [email protected].

We will process and dispatch your order as soon as we can. Depending on the size and complexity of your order, and how busy we are with orders from UK families, it can take up to two weeks for us to dispatch your order.

If your order has not been dispatched within two weeks, and you have received no communication from us about errors with your purchase order, please contact [email protected].

All international orders are sent by tracked & signed international post.

Please make sure you provide your full, correct address, as many international packages are returned to us because of incorrect addresses. If you have any concerns about your address (e.g. if our website shop did not let you format it correctly), please contact us at [email protected] quoting your order number and listing the full address and any other details you would like to appear on the parcel.

If you have not received an email from CLAPA about your order having been processed and dispatched within five working days, please contact us at [email protected].

We will provide your email address to the courier service when we are processing your parcel. The courier service will send you tracking details and updates about your parcel’s location. They may pass it on to a local postal service once it arrives in your country, and they will have their own tracking information. You must contact the courier service for any enquiries about the location of your parcel.

In most cases, you will have to pay customs fees and other import duties before your parcel can be delivered to you. Once your parcel arrives in your country, the courier service or your local postal service should contact you about this by email, post, or SMS. CLAPA cannot cover these additional fees. It is your responsibility to pay any fees in good time so that your parcel is not returned to us.

Following Brexit, shipping costs to the Republic of Ireland are significantly higher. It may be cheaper for you to use a Parcel Motel service.

The £30 shipping charge includes pre-paid import duties and other fees for the Republic of Ireland, so there should be no additional fees payable upon receipt of your package. Less than £1 of this charge goes to CLAPA to help cover staff time, packaging, storage, and other costs.

The £30 shipping cost includes prepayment of import duties and other fees. There should be no additional fees payable by you before your package is delivered.

If you are charged extra fees, please contact CLAPA with the details. We cannot cover the costs of these additional fees, but the information you provide will help us to update our processes and information to avoid other families being charged these fees.

CLAPA Ireland usually has a stock of MAM bottles and teats which they can supply to hospitals and families in need.

Dr Browns has other European suppliers. Please ensure you are buying the ‘Speciality Feeding System’ as this includes the blue valve which makes the bottles work as intended for babies born with a cleft.

Many of CLAPA’s international orders come from Denmark, so we have become familiar with the average cost of us sending a parcel there.

If we start to receive regular orders from other EU countries, we will set up additional shipping rates.

We charge £15 for shipping to Denmark; this is the average cost of a courier delivery including a small amount to cover the costs of staff time and packaging.

The £15 shipping cost does NOT include import duties and other fees, as we are not able to pre-pay these when booking your parcel delivery. You are responsible for paying any customs duties and fees on receipt of your parcel.

If you do not pay these import duties and fees, the parcel may be returned to us. If this happens, we will ask you to pay the delivery charge again before we can re-send the parcel.

MAM soft bottles are only available through CLAPA.

Dr Browns has other European suppliers. Please ensure you are buying the ‘Speciality Feeding System’ as this includes the blue valve which makes the bottles work as intended for babies born with a cleft.

For international orders (excluding the Republic of Ireland and Denmark), we charge a standard £30 fee which covers packaging, processing, and shipping.

If the cost of shipping your order is more than £35, we will contact you with a payment link and ask you to cover the additional costs. We will not dispatch your order until we have received this second payment.

The £30 shipping cost does NOT usually include import duties and other fees, as we are not usually able to pre-pay these when booking your parcel delivery. You are responsible for paying any customs duties and fees on receipt of your parcel.

If you do not pay these import duties and fees, the parcel may be returned to us. If this happens, we will ask you to pay the delivery charge again before we can re-send the parcel.

MAM soft bottles are only available through CLAPA.

Dr Browns has other European suppliers. Please ensure you are buying the ‘Speciality Feeding System’ as this includes the blue valve which makes the bottles work as intended for babies born with a cleft.

There are several common issues with the feeding equipment we supply. These issues are not considered faults, as they are to do with how the equipment is manufactured.

• MAM teats are smaller or a different colour than expected
  • MAM orthodontic teats are made of a soft latex material which naturally swells up with use and may discolour. This means new teats may appear smaller and a different colour to teats which have been used. MAM teats must be replaced at least every 4-6 weeks.
• MAM teats are leaking
  • ‘Vented’ MAM teats have a slit on one side of the teat to help with the elimination of extra air. Make sure this vent is on top during feeds, otherwise it may leak milk.
  • Make sure there is a good seal between the bottle lid and teat.
  • MAM teats must be replaced at least every 4-6 weeks; teats used for longer than this may start to degrade.
• Dr Browns bottles are leaking
  • This commonly happens if the collar is too tight or too loose, or if the insert and reservoir are not properly assembled.
  • Avoid mixing formula in the bottle, as the shaking can cause the vent inside to separate and the bottle to leak.
• The ink on Dr Browns bottles are coming off
  • Due to the materials the bottles are made of, the ink on the outside may come off if the bottles are over-sterilised (especially using steam or boiling water) or scrubbed roughly.

If there is another fault with the equipment, please contact us on [email protected] to explain the exact nature of the fault and, if possible, provide photographs. We may use these to contact the manufacturer directly or to identify similar faults in the rest of our stock.

We will send replacement product(s) as soon as possible.

We will offer a refund if you do not want replacement product(s), but we will need you to send photographs and/or return the faulty item before we can process this.

If we’ve sent you something different to what you ordered, we’re so sorry for the mistake. Each order is processed and packed by hand, and whilst we do our best to get everything right, occasionally an error slips through.

Please contact us at [email protected] to provide details of what you received in error, quoting the order number on your invoice or confirmation email. We will arrange replacement products as soon as possible and discuss returning the incorrect items.

If you have ordered the wrong items please email us on [email protected] to arrange a return or replacement.

If you have not opened the sealed packaging or used the items, you can send them back to us for a refund.

You will need to return the items to us along with a note including your name and order number. Please ensure you pay the full postage cost for the parcel size and weight otherwise they may not be delivered to us and we cannot accept responsibility for underpaid postage.

We can also exchange for items of the same value, though we may ask you to pay a delivery fee to cover our costs.

We cannot re-sell or donate opened or used feeding equipment. As such we are unable to provide a refund or exchange for these items.

Used or opened teats cannot be donated and must not be used by other babies. Your local Cleft Team may be able to take unneeded bottles, or you can offer them to other parents in CLAPA’s Facebook Support Group. Note that if you are offering used or opened bottles to other parents and carers in this support group, our policies state you can only ask for the cost of postage to be covered.

Unless an item is clearly faulty, we cannot refund or replace opened or used feeding equipment.

We rely on parents and carers ordering feeding equipment in consultation with their Cleft Nurse Specialist, who will check a particular feeding method works before recommending it. In some cases, even when a product is recommended, it may not work as well as hoped.

If you have any questions or problems when using the equipment recommended to you, please get in touch with your Cleft Nurse in the first instance.

If you are struggling to pay for extra feeding equipment, please contact your Cleft Nurse, as they can get in touch with us on your behalf and ask for additional free-of-charge bottles and teats. We send out many extra items like this to many vulnerable families across the UK each year.