22 mo old son has submucous cleft - what should I expect w/

[Shayla Summers]

My son was just diagnosed with a submucous cleft palate. He is
already in speech therapy, but will have to have surgery in
August. I don't know what to expect out of this procedure. If you
could give some advice I would appreciate it.

[Danyelle]

Hello! My daughter just had surgery for her palate on Monday.
She is also 22 months old. The actual procedure only took the
doctor about an hour to do. She was really out of it right
afterwards and cranky, but i don't blame her. The doctor put a
stitch in the tip of her tongue and left a string on it so (I
guess) she wouldn't touch the site that got fixed. The string was
taped to her face. My husband and I weren't expecting that at
all.It was a little strange and we would have liked to have known
about too. Another thing to expect is a little bit of bleeding
from out of the nose and mouth.She is doing great now and she
came home this morning. She was only in the hopsital for a little
over 24 hours. Her voice is completely different than from before
the surgery. She has already began to make new sounds. It has
also been a little difficult not letting her have her favorite
foods and keeping her hands out of her mouth.Now we have to work
on the hard part of going through speech therapy so she can talk,
which will be such a joy!

[Anonymous]

Hi Shayla. My husband has recently had his submucous cleft discovered at the age of 38. He has had his eye teeth removed and now wears a metal plate with replacement teeth which has really helped. The discovery was made due to a bad overbite and constant abcesses. So glad you have managed to tackle the problem early in your son's life. Our daughter is 7 years old, and has a full unilateral cleft lip and palate, but has had corrective surgery to the lip nose and most of her palate, all is going well. We are starting a cleft palate association in Zimbabwe, would you like to be on our mailing list?? We always love to hear from other families with related problems. Please let me know. My address is P O Box WGT 144 Westgate Harare Zimbabwe (Southern Africa). Take care and good luck to you.


Sheila Blamire

[Jenny Sanders]

Have you contacted a speech-language pathologist? I am a speech-language pathologist and I worked with a boy who was 3 1/2 with a submucous cleft palate- we did lots of oral motor exercises, palatal facilitation, and articulation therapy- his speech improved significantly. He did not need any surgery or an appliance. Ask your pedicatrician about this.

[delcia3@pacbell.net]

i am 36 years old and was born with a submucous
cleft palate i was 11 years old when i had
surgery to correct it. and no one tied my tongue
that almost sounds like doctors from backward
nations.
i had mine done in lincoln,nebraska in 1974
you son's speech should be completely
normal if they did the operation correctly.
what ever you do some speech therapy helps
but most of the time it just plain frustrates you.
try listening to your own voice on tape
and then think about how many times your child
would like hearing it.
my speech is great i was a discjockey in college
your child should be fine.
also although my dad had a full cleft and my
oldest sister had a full cleft and i had a
submucous. none of us had any children with
palate disorders

[Lori]

I would love to speak with you - I have never found anyone else with s submucous cleft. My daughter is 5 and has a submucous cleft. We are contemplating surgery and she has been in speech therapy since she was 8 months old. Please contact me. Please email at lormar3@aol.com.