Understanding a Bit More About Cleft Palate During Your Pregnancy
Pregnancy in and of itself can be an extremely anxiety ridden time— not only are you constantly worried about the health of your baby but also about the new life changes it is going to bring to your family once your baby is born. However, if you find out that your baby has some health issues while in utero, then your anxiety will be even more magnified. As a birth defect that affects approximately 1 in 600 babies, cleft palate is a condition that occurs when both the left and the right side on the roof of your mouth don’t join correctly. If you have recently found out that your child has a cleft palate, one of the best things that you can do to stay calm is to be informed. Read on to learn more about cleft palate.
How Does It Occur?
During the first trimester of your pregnancy, your baby’s cleft will typically develop and will show during your first major ultrasound. If, however, there is either some sort of either hereditary or environmental impact on your child during this stage, then their palate might not fully develop and they may have a cleft palate.
What Does a Cleft Palate Mean Exactly?
When considering the ramifications of having a cleft palate, it’s important to know what this will mean for the development of your child. Having a cleft palate can cause things like eating, speaking to become very difficult— which could cause your child to have to use something like a feeding tube in order to get the proper nutrition that they need.
Can It Be Fixed?
The best news about your child having a cleft palate is that the experts at Associated Plastic Surgeons & Consultants can fix your child’s cleft palate at around 9 weeks. During a surgical procedure, your child’s palate will be rebuilt and close off so that they can speak and chew just like normal. In fact, with surgery and some speech therapy, your child should not have any difficulty further down the line.
If your child has a cleft palate and you just found out during your pregnancy, contact the experts at Associated Plastic Surgeons & Consultants to have your questions answered.
- Published in Cleft Palate Surgery
How to Prepare Your Child for An Otoplasty
If your child’s ears protrude a bit farther away from their head and they are self-conscious about them or they consistently get made fun of at school, then you may want to consider scheduling an otoplasty for them. As a surgery designed to help essentially pin back your child’s ears so that they sit a bit closer to their head, otoplasty is a life changing surgical treatment that will give your child permanent results. However, although the results are enough to make your child jump for joy, the very thought of undergoing surgery can be enough to give your child a bit of anxiety. From discussing the surgical procedure to understanding what recovery will be like, this article will discuss some of the ways that you can prepare your child for an otoplasty.
Discuss the Procedure
Nothing will help ease your child’s anxiety quite like answering their questions and letting them know what they can expect from their surgery. As a great tool, your child’s doctor at Associated Plastic Surgeons & Consultants can sit down with you and your child pre-surgery in order to go over what they can expect from the surgery itself— also during this time, your child can ask one of our surgical expert any questions that they may have.
An Incentive
Children love to have something to look forward to— as we all do. As a great way to get your child through their surgery, offer them some sort of incentive. For instance, have them pick out their favorite ice cream from the grocery store beforehand and let them have some when they get out of surgery. Or, take them to the toy store beforehand and let them pick out a new toy that they can play with once they are out of surgery and in recovery.
Explain Recovery
As one of the most important steps of any surgical process, recovery is key. As another way to ease your child’s anxieties, explain to your child what they can expect from the recovery process. For instance, explain to them that they will have to stay in bed for a few days afterwards and watch movies, and that they will have to wear a bandage over their head and around their ears as they heal.
Undergoing surgery is intense for anyone, especially children. help ease your child’s anxieties regarding surgery by following the tips lifted above. To learn more or to schedule an appointment, contact our Associated Plastic Surgeons & Consultants office today!
- Published in Otoplasty