clefts

haileysmimi

Just wondering if there are any other cleft parents here. My 3 month old has her first surgery coming up and just looking for parents who have been there or are going through the same things

rsd12

My oldest 9 yrs old was born with a unilateral complete cleft lip and palate! Anything I can help answer? The first year was very tough but since then things have been quite normal even with additional surgeries!

haileysmimi

How did your baby feed after lip repair? And did the arm restraints bother them. Thank you in advance. Surgery is next Thursday and the closer it gets the more I dread it.

rsd12

After lip repair we were able to go right back to the bottles. We used the pigeon system which worked really well for us!

I was surprised by the arm restraints. They worked very well, hard to keep on at that age but I am glad we used them. When our son had a revision at the age of 4 we used them again (just at night, worried he would accidentally grab at his face).

I think the hardest part was mourning the cleft lip. I loved his cleft smile! It is so much harder on us at this age than on our babies. Good luck!

haileysmimi

Thank you. I know that is my worry. I love her unique smile and although I know its best for her I don't want it to change. Just a few more days to enjoy it.