Cleft lip and palate: Cleft lip and palate is a common congenital malformation of the oral and maxillofacial region, with an average of 1 in 700 babies born with cleft lip and palate. Cleft lip and palate not only seriously affects facial aesthetics, but also directly affects development because of the connection between the oral and nasal cavities, often inviting upper respiratory tract infections and complicating otitis media. Difficulties in suckling lead to significant malnutrition, which causes severe psychological trauma to the child and parents.
Many people think that “cleft lip and palate” is a disease, but this is actually a mistake. Cleft lip and cleft palate are divided into cleft lip and cleft palate, which can occur separately or at the same time. The symptoms of cleft lip and palate do not recover on their own as the child grows up, but rather they can have a significant impact on the child if they remain untreated. The current treatment for cleft lip and palate is surgery.
Many mothers of cleft lip and palate babies are worried about these questions: 1.
2. Should my baby have surgery sooner if the cleft lip and palate is more severe?
The answer to both questions is whether 1. Cleft lip repair time: If the baby’s general condition is good, 3-6 months after birth is the most suitable time to repair cleft lip. At this stage, the baby’s weight grows rapidly, resistance is stronger than at birth, and the lip tissue grows faster after surgery, which is conducive to the recovery after surgery. If the child’s sucking is affected by cleft lip and the nutritional status is poor, he or she should be carefully cared for and patiently fed in general, and the surgery should be done only after the nutritional status has improved and the preoperative laboratory tests are normal and there are no contraindications to surgery. Compared with unilateral cleft lip repair, bilateral cleft lip surgery is more complicated and the surgery lasts longer, so it is better to do the surgery when the child is 6~8 months old. However, the age of surgery should not be later than 1 full year. After 1 full year of age, the lip tissue starts to shrink and the teeth start to erupt and protrude, so the results after surgery are not as good as in the early years. If the age of surgery is earlier than 3 months, the lip and nose are small, the lip structure is not clear, and the tissue is fragile, so the effect after surgery is not ideal.
2, cleft palate repair time: to do cleft palate repair, the most suitable age is 10~18 months, within this period, the earlier the surgery, the better. The choice of the time of cleft palate repair surgery is still somewhat controversial until now. With cleft palate repair, there may be some impact on the child’s articulation and maxillary growth and development. It is now found that undergoing cleft palate repair within 1 year of age, the palatopharyngeal closure function is close to normal, which is most beneficial to the development of phonological function and reduces middle ear damage. If the age of surgery is too early, due to the narrow mouth of infants, the soft tissue of the palate is thin, which increases the difficulty of surgery, and the repair can hinder the growth and development of the maxilla, making the palate narrow and shortened, the upper and lower teeth are not aligned, and the bite is impaired, which affects the digestion and absorption of food; if the age of surgery is too late, it often requires a long period of voice correction and the results are poor. If both deformities are present, surgery should be staged, with repair of the cleft lip first and then the cleft palate. In addition, children with cleft lip and palate often have misaligned upper jaw teeth and a reverse jaw, or “geodontia,” and should undergo orthodontic treatment around age 12.
Since the cleft lip and palate surgery involves the mouth and lips, and the main function of the mouth and lips is to eat and drink.
Therefore, diet is an important part of postoperative care.
1, pediatric cleft lip surgery 1 week before the child should be spoon feeding 1 week training, postoperative spoon feeding for at least 1 to 3 months. And after cleft palate surgery, you have to feed cold liquid food for 7 days. no hot food for 2-3 weeks. All the above are simple, easy to understand and effective measures.
2.After cleft lip surgery, children are required to have a liquid diet. Liquid diet includes: milk, juice and broth. After 1 week of liquid diet, for patients with small lip wounds, they can have a liquid diet for 3 days (at least 2 days of cold liquid diet), then they can have some thin porridge, boiled noodles and vegetable puree. 7 days later they can have a normal diet and avoid spicy and stimulating foods. After cleft palate surgery, children can eat a full liquid diet for 1 week, a semi-liquid diet after 1 week, and a normal diet after 3 weeks. Rinse your mouth after eating to keep your mouth clean.
3.Pay attention to oral cleaning after cleft lip surgery, rinse mouth with mouthwash or warm water immediately after surgery, the first three days after surgery, oral movement is inconvenient, you can hold water in the mouth and gently shake your head. 14 days after surgery, you can brush your teeth, mainly brush the posterior molars, the front teeth may not be easy to brush due to the swelling of the upper lip, no need to force, pay attention to rinse after meals.
4.The correction of secondary deformity of cleft lip has little effect on movement. It is recommended to do normal activities after surgery, but do not do more intense physical exercise. Fitness, swimming and other activities are recommended to wait until 1 month after surgery.