Palate repair at six months?

[jacksmom]

I was just wondering if anybody out there had experience with a palate repair at six months or younger. We saw second plastic surgeon this past week who said he could repair our son's cleft at six months. He told us that it was a very "generic" cleft, not severe at all, and he didn't really see a reason to wait until ten months as our first surgeon recommended. We are very anxious to have this behind us, but of course want it done correctly. Both surgeons are very respected in our area. Any information would be helpful! We are having a terrible time making a decision!
Thanks & Happy Holidays!
Allison

[Jeff Alterman]

If your son's cleft palate isn't that severe, it might be possible to perform a successful palate repair at six months. The advantage there is that it might help with your son's speech development since he'll have a full palate to work with.

Jeff Alterman at alterman@bestweb.net

[gregory]

Alison,

Making decisions for my son's cleft palate surgery and other corrective surgeries for his Pierre Robin Sequence were the toughest I ever had to make, considering that I am a corporate executive.

My family and I are huge advocates of early intervention (cleft operation at an early age) with great results to show.

Please review my son's story in this site: http://www.cleft.org/families/theodoros.htm

Do not hesitate to contact me or my wife if you need more details or just to discuss. You can find our contact information in the story.

Best of luck,
Gregory (9yoB, PRS)

[mazimono]

Hi, Allison,

Our son's palate repair repair was done at 3 days of age. We had a great surgeon in VA who is also the co-founder of Operation Smile. He believes strongly in early palate repair and so do we. The early repair enabled our son to bottle feed normally rather than being tube-fed. Our story can be found on this website (Theodoros) and our contact information is there as well. Please don't hesitate to call or e-mail me if you have any more questions. Good luck to you and God bless.

Mary Ann Z.

[Jeff Alterman]

Kudos to you Mary Ann Z. for having successfully had your son's cleft palate repaired at 3 days of age. I guess that the repair will hold together and you won't have to go crazy with lengthy feedings. Also your son's speech development will probably be much better with the early repair. Maybe this will be a step in the right direction if more doctors practice cleft palate repair within days after birth. Then there might be far fewer problems in the long run.

Jeff Alterman at alterman@bestweb.net

[cadiesmom]

We had our daughters cleft repair done when she was 6 months old to the day and I have no regrets. She did have a wide cleft and has developed fistula, but the fact that she can eat baby food with out it all running out her nose or her having to use her fingers to push the food back to swallow was a big enough reason to have it done early for me. Now she is 9 months old and making the glottal speech sounds that our speech therapist says are so difficult for babies with clefts to make. Every time she says a "g", "d" or "b" I want to kiss our plastic surgeon. Thankfully he is in Virginia and I am in Tennessee. We also went to another Plastic Surgeon before we got a second opinion and he refused to do anything for Cadie until she was at least a year old. He also wanted to strap her elbows to boards for 2 weeks post-op to keep her from putting her fingers in her mouth. It sounded awful, so I immediately started to research the issue and was so grateful to find our current Cleft team. I vote the sooner you can get it done, the better. Best wishes.