Nourish 1000 Malnourished Children 4 Cleft Surgery

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.