Nourish 1000 Malnourished Children 4 Cleft Surgery

Little Safrul was born with both cleft lip and palate.

His neighbors and relatives showed no mercy to the parents and tried convincing them not to raise such child who, they believed, was a sign of ill luck. They urged the parents to give him away to some orphanage or leave him at the hospital. HI father, however, ignored the ill wishers. He held his child and promised to leave no stone unturned to give a normal childhood to his son.

During discharge, the hospital administration suggested the parents to visit GC4 centre when the child reaches 6 months and advised them to take care of the baby’s weight. But cleft palate made it difficult for the child to drink milk and he was hungry most of the time.

Realising this, Safrul’s father brought him to GC4 for a consultation on proper nutrition for his son. This also helped them increase the weight if the child to the desirable level for surgery. The child received the first lip surgery on 31^st January, 2019. Safrul’s father was relieved and hoped for a better better life for his child. The child received the palate surgery on 8^th January, 2020. The happy family cried tears of joy as they left our centre.

Rizauddin was born with a bilateral cleft lip. His parents, who come from a small village in Assam, were shocked upon seeing their newborn’s face. They had never seen someone with a cleft condition before and were, naturally, very worried. Rizauddin’s mother immediately burst into tears of hopelessness upon seeing her child’s face. For months, she had been looking forward to holding her baby in her arms, but now that she was holding him, she didn’t know what to do.

He weighed 2.5 kgs at birth which is normal for an Indian newborn. After returning home, however, he rapidly started losing weight. His parents were naturally very worried. They realised that feeding seemed very difficult for the little one because of his condition. The new parents were nervous and the mother thought she was doing something wrong. They were very worried for their son’s wellbeing. They were also scared of social ostracism for their child’s deformity. His mother was in the grips of panic for her newborn. She was worried about how much suffering he would have to undergo. They itook the little one to a doctor who referred their child to our Comprehensive Cleft Care Centre at Guwahati.

Our experts in the Nutrition department assured the family that Rizauddin’s condition could be surgically treated, but his weight had to be brought up to an optimal level for the procedure. They then instructed his mother on how to feed the child and showed the correct positions to hold the child. They had also been feeding the child cow’s milk and baby formula, but they did not know the correct measurements. Our nutrition department gave them the correct measurements as well.

In a few months’ time Rizauddin’s weight was normal and he underwent surgery at our centre in GC4. Today he is growing into a healthy and happy child and has lots of friends.