john.shimp we are army also....

[krista]

hi,

i just wanted to welcome you to the group and introduce us. my name is Krista and my hubby is Jeff. Jeff is in the army also. we have a 3 year old daughter, Malissa, who was born with a bilateral cleft lip and cleft palate. not often that we come across other military parents with a child who has a cleft. right now we are on recruiting duty in Iowa. we were stationed at ft Campbell, KY and Malissa had her palate repair done at Vanderbilt university at 15 months old. she had her lip repair done at the university of Iowa when she was 6 months old. we are from Iowa and i was here while Jeff was in Korea. so Malissa was born at the u of Iowa and had her lip repair done there. anyhow, just wanted to say hi and hope to hear from you again soon.

Krista

[john.shimp]

Thanks for the reply, it is true that we are few and far between in the military. Me and my wife, Angie, were also at Ft. Campbell, now I am down at Ft. Benning. Infantry officer. Why did you have the repair at 15 months. Our doctor said 9 months. Do you think I should be anticipating longer than 9 months?

I also have a question about feeding. My son, Will, has developed a hatred of spoon food. I know that he is only 5 months, but his brother seems to be very happy with it. Did you keep your daughter on a liquid diet until the palate surgery?

Can't wait to hear from you again. This is a very hard time for us, and it is good to know there is a support group out here.

[Heide]

Dear John,
I hope you don't mind a "civilian" reply but a few months ago we were really struggling with our daughter and eating baby foods. She has a bclp and is now almost 10 months old. We started her on solids at about 6 months and the first few weeks were really a struggle; it seemed more came out of her nose than anything. While it may not work for you, our daughter seems to have an easier time if we hold the spoon sideways up to her mouth and then in, we also found the smallest spoons we could find (narrow wise). It also seemed to help us to add a little cereal to the real runny foods. Our speech therapist also suggested a spoon called a "maroon spoon" if we really had problems. we did not order one and the plain old gerber ones have worked out so far but here is the link if you wish to try
http://www.theraproducts.com/index.php? ... ts_id=7223

thank you for your service and hope all goes well. Heide