StarGirl also had a cleft in her palate, but it was only when she was born and they could give her a proper medical checkup that we knew for definite.
Feeding was more of an issue from palate perspective than lip. Only the soft palate was affected (the soft bit on the roof of your mouth, and all the way down through the uvula)
Milk going through the gap into her nose was a frequent problem, choking becomes a big problem the older they get once weaning onto solid foods begins.
StarGirl was meant to have her palate operation at 28 weeks but an hour before surgery they decided she wasnt well enough and sent us home.
The next available date was when she was 33 weeks old. By now her lip had healed amazingly well.
The same procedure as for the lip, we went in Wednesday, they did all the checks. That night I tried to do last feeds but she was still not really willing to wake up and drink when she was used to sleeping through.
Stargirl was second on the list and went down mid morning and came back after lunch.
Her cries were different again, but not as big a change as there was with the lip. She seemed to be in far worse pain this time around.
She was off the machines in 24 hours and back on the ward then. She didnt take as well to the bottle, but she was on baby porridges made with formula now, so she got all her fluid and calories that way.
We were out Saturday and she healed pretty quickly. Bottle feeding took some weeks to get back to normal though.
Giving her porridges and purees had been so tough the weeks before repair, but as soon as it was done she really took to eating from a spoon and the tastes of food. I started giving her more water as the cleft team advised it to cleanse the palate stitches.
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| Top images: from Google, showing what a soft palate cleft is. Bottom images: Left - a few weeks after surgery, Right - a year after surgery |
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| 2 years after palate op |
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