My son is 3 years old and was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate. In fact cleft runs in our family with grandpa, unlce and aunt all having one. We visited 3 cleft teams in the Houston area and choose Dr Teichgraeber. We have been super impressed with his talents, skills and bedside manner. He is great for questions and up to date on whats new in the field of cleft repair. I have actually been working with Ruth Fleshman the team coordinator for Dr T to help support other parents. We have a group called the Houston Cleft Parent Network. You can find us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HoustonCPN/ Pictures of my son Austin from before and after surgery are there as well as pics of other kids. You can chat with several parents who have all had children with clefts. Also the greatest source of info on the internet I found is www.cleftadvocate.org Check it out!! They have imformation on feeding, surgery, everything!! And they have a great family to family connection where you can talk to parents from all over. A great support system! If I can help answer any more questions I'd love to try. Ruth F. can give you my phone number (she has permission to share it) or you can email me. Cindy
I truly respect this BBS more and more, and Tannersauras for registering to help someone out. Simply amazingly wonderful...well done ! DD
Wow...that WAS her first post. I joined her the group also. This is the best BBS there is. Everyone might not always get along and see eye to eye in here...but everyonw are passionate and truely good people.
I'm sure you didn't mean it the way it sounded but your next child will be just as perfect as your first two. Good luck
Thanks. I didn't mean anything to sound negative if it did. We have some challenges ahead that we didn't have to face with my boys. She will be prefect though!!!!
I don't have any information for you, but I'd just like to emphasize that it really does have no lasting effects on a child when surgery is done earlier. I had major head surgery when I was in fifth grade. I didn't realize how major it actually was until about a week ago when I looked it up. Now that I think about it, looking back, I don't even remember having anything wrong with me that was all that bad. Sure, some things were not normal, but the only thing I really remember about surgery was waking up. When I woke up, I had the most intense pain I hope to ever feel. Now, take what little memory I have of that (being only 8 years or so ago), and think WAYYY younger. With all that said (sorry...it really had no relevancy), I'm sure your daughter will turn out to be beautiful.
You can really thank Clutch!! He has been friends with my husband and his brother who was born with a cleft for years!! They grew up together. He has seen and played with my son Austin who has a cleft. Loves to throw him up in the air!! Our kids are the same ages and are good friends too! When Clutch saw that someone was reaching out for info on clefts he thought of us. It is something our family has had to deal with a lot. As for Basketball or any sport...my husband needs to post about that. Cindy
