Hi, Our names are Barry and Michelle. Our little boy, Harry was born with a soft cleft palate and PRS. This wasn't picked up in any of his ultrasounds at all so, when he was born it was a big shock to all of us. He was born at 9am and i didn't get to see him or even hold him until 9pm that night. I did have an elective c. section however. So, the midwives brought him into me. Barry and our two year old, Sam, also didn't get to hold him which was the most awful thing. We were shown by a Speech Therapist how to feed him with a heberman bottle. As he could only drink small amounts of it, he also had a ngt. When he was 6 months old, his ngt came out and we never got it replaced again because, by then he was drinking all of his bottles! ( The cleft coordinator at the RCH also said not to replace it as, his tube came out whilst we were in Melbourne). Whilst he had his ngt, we were very lucky to live only a 5 minute drive from our hospital so, if it came out in the middle of the night, we didn't have far to go. He was starting to eat solids at about 4 months of age, so we knew he could drink and eat well. He is now 22 months old. He had his palate surgery in July. He coped extremely well and was eating the next day! After a checkup with our plastic surgeon, he still has a small hole. the surgeon said this was because his cleft was so wide and it tore. He said that within one year it should slowly join together. If it doesn't and depending on his speech development, he may need to get it repaired agin. We don't have to see any plastic surgeons again for a year! Hooray! He also had grommets inserted and he is now talking a lot more and using Makaton sign language. He sees his speech therapist in our local town every two weeks. He also sees our local audiologist every few months. He is an amazing little boy and we are very proud of him. we just can't believe how far he has come from those first few months after he was born. He is now a "typical nearly two year old"!, he keeps us very busy and we love him dearly.
