Please turn on JavaScript and try again. Important Phone Numbers. When should you call for help? Where can you learn more? Top of the page. Your Child's Recovery Cleft palate repair is surgery to fix a split cleft in the roof of the mouth, which is called the palate.
How can you care for your child at home? Allow your child to slowly become more active. Have him or her rest as much as needed. Make sure he or she gets enough sleep at night.
Put your child to sleep on his or her back. This will help your child breathe more easily. For the first few weeks after surgery: Do not allow your child to run, play roughly, or do other activities that could damage the incision.
Do not use a pacifier or let your child put his or her hand, toys, or other objects in his or her mouth. Follow the doctor's instructions for feeding your child. You may need to use a special bottle or syringe for the first few weeks to give your child breast milk or formula.
When you start feeding your child soft foods, be careful not to damage the stitches with a spoon or fork. Give your child plenty of fluids. Orthodontic treatment , which helps improve the alignment and appearance of teeth, may also be required. This can include braces or other dental appliances to help straighten the teeth. Brace treatment usually starts after all the baby teeth have been lost, but may be necessary before a bone graft to repair the cleft in the gum.
Children with a cleft are more vulnerable to tooth decay , so it's important to encourage them to practise good oral hygiene and to visit their dentist regularly. Repairing a cleft palate will significantly reduce the chance of speech problems, but in some cases, children with a repaired cleft palate still need speech therapy.
A speech and language therapist SLT will assess of your child's speech several times as they get older. They may refer you to community SLT services near your home. The SLT will continue to monitor your child's speech until they are fully grown and they will work with your child for as long as they need assistance. Further corrective surgery may sometimes be required for a small number of children who have increased airflow through their nose when they're speaking, resulting in nasal-sounding speech.
Page last reviewed: 13 August Next review due: 13 August Treatment - Cleft lip and palate Contents Overview Treatment. If the cleft lip is wide, special procedures like lip adhesion or nasal alveolar molding NAM might help bring the parts of the lip closer together and improve the shape of the nose before the cleft lip repair. Cleft lip repair usually leaves a small scar under the nose. A cleft palate usually is repaired with surgery called palatoplasty PAL-eh-tuh-plass-tee when the baby is 10—12 months old.
The goals of palatoplasty are to:. This surgery requires general anesthesia and takes about 2—3 hours. Most babies can go home after 1 or 2 days in the hospital. The stitches will dissolve on their own. Your child will need a liquid diet for a week or two, then will eat soft foods for several more weeks before going back to his or her regular diet.
You may be asked to keep your baby in special sleeves "no-nos" that prevent the elbows from bending. This is so your baby can't put any fingers or hard objects into the mouth, which could make the cleft palate repair come open.
Cleft lip and palate surgeries have greatly improved in recent years. Most kids who undergo them have very good results. There are risks with any surgery, though, so call the doctor if your child:. It's important to work with a care team experienced in treating children with cleft lip and palate. Besides the pediatrician, a child's treatment team will include:. Some kids with cleft lip and palate may need other surgeries as they get older.
These might include:. Most kids with cleft lip and palate are treated successfully with no lasting problems. In the weeks and days before surgery, take these steps to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible:. Cleft palate surgery can take anywhere from two to six hours or more, depending on the repairs needed. Before the surgery starts, an anesthesiologist will give your child medicine to fall asleep, and they will stay in the operating room the entire time to make sure your child feels no pain.
Once your child is asleep, a plastic surgeon will make incisions in the palate and rearrange the tissues to close the opening.
Normally, no tissue is needed from other parts of the body to complete this procedure. The surgeon will use dissolving stitches to close each layer of tissue and place the muscles in the soft palate in the best position to heal and grow.
Your child may need multiple surgeries to repair the cleft palate completely. If your child also has a cleft lip, it's often repaired before or during cleft palate surgery. If your child has a cleft in the gum, the surgeon will repair it at a later time. This often occurs around the ages of seven or eight when your child's upper jaw has had more time to grow.
Plus, as your child grows, they might need additional surgery to improve speech function — this could include lengthening the soft palate or reducing the opening between the nose and the throat. You can expect swelling and some bloody drainage around the nose and mouth after cleft palate surgery. This includes a small amount of blood in the mucous or saliva, making it appear pink.
Now that the opening between the nose and mouth is closed, your child also might have a snottier nose than usual. As the swelling goes down over several weeks, your child should have less congestion. Just like any other surgery or major event, cleft palate surgery might disrupt sleeping and eating habits for a little while. If you have any concerns, please see your medical provider.
Once you get home, your child's palate will take three weeks or more to heal. Follow your physician's instructions and take extra precautions to protect the surgical site. Some things to consider:. Your child will attend multiple post-op appointments to make sure the site is healing correctly. At those appointments, your medical provider will let you know when it's safe to resume normal activities like eating solid foods or brushing your child's teeth. Overall, cleft palate surgery plays an important role in restoring the appearance and function of your child's mouth.
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