Posted by Jennifer R on 7/22/2008, 10:12 am, in reply to "Cleft Palate Repair"
132.228.195.207
My son had his pallete repaired in Dec 07, he was 9 mons old. My advice is wear old clothes to the hospital because there is a lot of blood. I almost passed out when I saw him for the first time, blood was dried on his face, dripping out of his mouth and nose. The doctors sewed a piece of string through his tounge incase he had problems breathing. All my son wanted was to be held, I didn't sleep I just held him.
We had problems getting him to drink, the nurse said he's got to relearn things because his mouth works differently. We found that taking the cork out of the sippy cup and watering down his food worked best for him. It took two weeks for him to eat normal amounts of food.
The first month or so we had problems with him sleeping by himself. I'd have to hold him until he fell a sleep then I'd put him to bed. Still to this day he has a really hard time with strangers touching him, not sure if he's just shy or if it was because he remembers the surgery.
Because my son was a thumb sucker, his doctor made him wear the arm restraints for 8 weeks after the surgery. They didn't bother him, I was impressed at how he figured out how to chew on things. He'd bend over or just get a long toy that he could get into his mouth. That was tough trying to get him to keep things out of his mouth. We had to hook the restraints to his shirt because he would wiggle out of them. I'd come in at night to find him sleeping peacefully with his thimb in his mouth.
Best of luck and if you need more info just email me.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread