Dementia and Your Loved One

Helping Your Child With A Cleft Lip & Palate Through Surgery: What You Should Know

9 November 2015

Vickie Armstrong

When you have a child born with a cleft lip and/or a cleft palate, you know that your child will need to go through reconstructive surgery and rehab in order to have a healthy bite and mouth overall. However, what you may not know is how you will be able to help your child through the series of surgeries with different reconstructive surgeons, and how you will help your child with their recovery periods. Before you become even more anxious and worried about the situation, get to know a few of the ways that you can help your child with a cleft lip and palate through surgery and recovery.

Explain What Is Going to Happen Calmly and in Simple Terms

Most likely, the first surgery your child will have for their cleft lip will occur when they are still an infant. However, they will need follow-up surgeries later in childhood to build up the palate and create stability and structure in the upper area of the mouth. At the time of this second surgery, you will need to sit down and talk to your child about what they will experience and why.

The more information your child has ahead of time, the more comfortable and well-behaved they will be on the day of surgery, and the less scared they will be. There is no need to be graphic in your explanations with the details of the surgeries. You can simply tell them that the doctor is going to fix their mouth so their teeth grow healthy and they can eat all of the food they like.

If a part of your child's surgery is to have a bone graft from their hip, you will also want to explain to them why they will have a small "owie" on their side as well. When their surgeries happen, your child will then feel prepared and will not feel ambushed.

Try to Make Recovery Seem as Fun as Possible

After surgery, the recovery process will be extensive. Your child will not be able to eat solid (even soft) food for at least a few days after their surgery. This means a liquid diet. Try to make this as easy as possible for your child by joining them in their all liquid diet (at least while they can see you) and telling them how yummy everything is.

The restricted diet will continue, with only soft foods being allowed for several days to weeks. Again, try to make this as fun as possible. You and your child could come up with your own smoothie recipes, for example, to blend together different foods making them edible for your child.

And, of course, while they are healing and their palate reconstruction is fully forming, your child will be limited in the activities they can engage in and will not be able to run, play sports, be involved in roughhousing, or do a large amount of any physical activity. To make this fun, you should try to plan activities with and for them to keep them entertained. Arts and crafts, puzzles, and video games are a good start. You could also take them to a children's art class, a museum, or even the zoo if you make sure they do not run.

Now that you know of a few ways that you can help your child with a cleft lip and palate through their surgery, you can be sure that you do everything possible to care for them through reconstructive surgery and beyond. Contact a medical professional like John Gatti MD to learn more.

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