SMILES

My son is 13 mos old and had his palate repaired on June 21st. The surgery went really well and he is completely healed. The problem is that he does not want to eat solid foods. We had a hard time getting him back to stage 2 baby food after the surgery (we really had to experiment with temperature, consistency, etc) but he is doing ok on that now but whenever we try to introduce a food that has a the slightest bit of texture he makes a face like the worst thing in the world is in his mouth and then he shuts his mouth down for business for the rest of the meal:).

Has anyone else experienced this and does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.

Hi there,
it sounds like you are doing well already. For us, our experience with our daughter since her Feb palate surgery has been a slow one moving to more solids. If your health care/team offers it may I suggest a speech therapist with a specialty in feeding issues. I know for our little one after the palate surgery, she did not like the new sensations and had a hard time adjusting to moving foods back over the center of the mouth (with her bclp she ate by moving foods down the sides of her mouth). Initially, the thicker textures seemed the best bridge to solids (along with the old standby of baby crackers). Now that our little one has more teeth, she is able to chew but whatever gets stuck on the roof of her mouth she still pushes forward and out :) She still has difficulty with some tongue movements but we also are working with a therapist through our county's birth to 3 program to help her with those sensations and movements. Believe it or not her favorite food now is cooked broccoli- I cook it really soft and she seems to be able to chew and swallow it easily. We also have been working with shakes in straws (you know putting the straw in, putting your finger over and then letting her try to suck it out) and with whistle toys to help with similar movements. I don't know if any of this will help but hope so. Hang in there, I know it can be frustrating. Heide

Hi Heide,
Thank you for all the useful suggestions. We go see the cleft team including the speech therapist in a few weeks so we will definitely talk to her about the solid food issue in the meantime we will give your ideas a try.

Thanks again!