Cleft Palate Repair

[Emmerama]

Has anyone had a child with a cleft palate that's been operated on? DS is 3 and having surgery for a submucous cleft palate next week. Interested to hear how recovery was and also if you noticed any immediate difference with speech, or if it was gradual or no difference at all?

My ds had a soft palate repair done when he was 18 months old & he healed quite quickly. We noticed improvements with his feeding immediately and although he could utter basic words like "mama dada" his speech came much later. He also had Pierre Robin sequence & global development delay due to other health issues so his speech didn't come through until he was 3.

There are a few words that he trouble with such as chocolate, he pronounces it as "swaswak" but apart from that his speech is very fluent. His language range is very good and a bit advanced for his age so don't worry too much. He will be in pain for a few days but it will be managed by painkillers & he will be monitored by medical staff.

Thanks, that's very helpful, it's so worrying when your little one needs an op - my DS is 3 now and can speak but it's really hard to understand him - actually we always think he's asking for chocolate when he is trying to say 'sausage' so sounds like the opposite to your DS.