1.When is it good to have cleft palate surgery? For simple pediatric cleft palate, early surgery is currently considered to be beneficial in solving pediatric feeding, speech and hearing problems. In terms of the timing of cleft palate surgery, children can be operated at the age of about 1 year, without other serious organ malformations, and in the absence of upper sensory symptoms such as fever, cough, runny nose and diarrhea. 2. Preparation for parents It is necessary to get the child used to spoon feeding one week in advance. While waiting for the surgery, parents should ensure the child’s nutrition and normal development and avoid respiratory infections so that the child can undergo the surgery in a healthy state of the whole body. Post-operative pain and discomfort may affect the child’s ability to eat, and attempts should be made to supplement the diet with highly nutritious fluids. Patients should have fasting blood tests for routine blood, urine, biochemistry, coagulation, electrocardiogram, and chest x-ray before surgery. If there are any problems, they should be treated and then admitted to the hospital for surgery. 3.Basic principles and procedures of surgery The treatment principle of cleft palate should be a comprehensive sequence of treatment to restore the anatomical form and physiological function of the palate, to reconstruct good palatopharyngeal closure and to obtain normal speech. Complete palatopharyngeal closure is the prerequisite for clear speech after cleft palate surgery, and the palatofanular raphe is the main muscle to accomplish this function. The key to cleft palate surgery is the reconstruction of the palatine raphe and the palatopharyngeal ring. In infants and children, the palatine raphe is small and the muscle bundle is thin, so microsurgical techniques are used to dissect the palatine raphe using an operating microscope and to sharply separate the muscle, which is helpful for postoperative speech recovery. Finally, the cleft was closed, the length of the soft palate was extended, the displaced tissue structures were reset, and the exposed wound was filled with hemostatic material. As for intraoperative bleeding, blood transfusion is usually not required due to the use of electric knife, etc. 4.What do I need to pay attention to after surgery? After the surgery is done, it is only half of the success. Proper care after the surgery is the key to ensure normal wound healing and successful surgery. After cleft palate surgery, it is advisable to feed the child with a spoon, and not to let the child suck on a nipple or a bottle, or to use a straw to suck on liquid food. After the child is fully awake for 4 hours, a small amount of water can be fed, observed for half an hour, and if there is no vomiting, a liquid food can be fed. After cleft palate surgery, they should be encouraged to eat liquid food and drink more water to ensure adequate nutrition. One week after the surgery, thin semi-liquid food should be started, and gradually increased according to the recovery. 4-6 after the surgery, normal food can be started, but care should still be taken to avoid damage to the wound from too hard food. One week after cleft palate surgery is a critical period for wound healing, so special attention should be paid to feeding, warmth, and wound cleaning for children. Avoid crying, colds, fever, diarrhea and any other adverse effects on the wound. To prevent wound infection, the child’s mouth should be cleaned daily, the child should be encouraged to drink more water, and antibiotics should be routinely applied for 3 to 5 days after surgery. Patients with cleft palate should continue to pay attention to their diet after discharge, except that they should not shout loudly in the early stage and should not pick their nasal and oral cavities with their fingers. Do not let children put their fingers or playthings into the mouth after surgery to prevent the wound from splitting open. You should return to the hospital one month after the surgery to check the recovery of the surgery. If there is no special, you should follow up once a year. 5.Language training after cleft palate surgery Language training can be started 2 to 3 months after surgery. The clarity of postoperative speech mainly depends on the palatopharyngeal closure after cleft palate surgery, that is, the degree of contact between the soft palate and the back wall of the pharyngeal cavity. Secondly, the active participation of the child’s parents is required. The parents should assume a certain role as doctors and try to talk more with the child. If the soft palate is not functional enough or not long enough to form a good contact, i.e. poor palatopharyngeal closure, then the child will always have airflow into the nasal cavity when speaking, causing heavy nasal sounds and slurred or difficult articulation. It is best to have the guidance of a professional speech therapist. When the diagnosis of poor palatopharyngeal closure is made it should also be combined with the application of nasopharyngeal fiberoptic examination and other objective evaluation of the degree and type of closure of the patient’s palatopharyngeal closure.