The cleft palate is great, we don't have to visit the clinic for another two years. He will have his next surgery (a bone graft will be taken from his hip and fused into his upper gum where the cleft began) after his permanent molars come in - somewhere between age 6-8. After that, or maybe concurrent with that surgery if his speech is suffering, he'll have plastic surgery to completely repair his nasal passageway and have a little touch up to the face b/t the nose and lip.
His left ear tube is already embedded in wax within the ear and will be fall out at some point; the right ear tube is in place and draining great; he had an ear infection this past week and it drained right out. If the left gives trouble in the future, we might have to put another tube in. It's typical that they stay in 6 months - 2 years; his left lasted 7 months. Ah well. His hearing is fine, all within normal range, a little less in the lower decibels of the right ear, which is probably due to gunk from the ear infection.
Dental is fine. Big underbite, common for Asian kids and especially kids with cleft palates. No orthodontics or anything major until after the last surgery. May need to wear a head brace for the underbite later, age 5 or 6. I got some good referrals for dentists and orthodontists; I'm thinking of getting braces myself soon so that's cool.
Nutrition is great. His BMI is improving, a big spike between this spring and today. JCG weighs 33 pounds and is 3 ft. 1 inch. A big spike in height from the spring, which everybody who has seen him lately knows. He's wearing 3T clothes now. News Flash: I just checked the blog after our first Dr. visit end of September 2008: he was 23 pounds and 2 ft. 9 inches. He's gained 10 pounds and 4 inches this year!!
My favorite appointment was with the director of the speech clinic, Cynthia Jacobsen. She really took her time with us, and explained to me the specific challenges he has with diction based on his cleft palate. Also just explained a lot about the nuts and bolts of speech development in general. I have the results of an exam she gave to share with our speech therapist next week with recommendations for moving forward. She got down on the floor with us and literally showed me how to use my language to lengthen his attention span and reinforce verbalizations on his part. It kind of paralleled what I do with clients to reinforce positive behaviors, so I was kind of excited by it. She gave us handouts and I feel like I know what to practice on our own.
It was a very good day. I'm so grateful for living so close to a great children's hospital with a phenomenal cleft palate unit. Yippee.
3 comments:
Hi Karen,
Good to finally read about Joaquin's progress, your challenges, and celebrations! Loved the one yr announcement you sent out--truly special. Many blessings to you and Joaquin!
Sandy
Have you thought about having your son go to speech therapy with one of the CM therapists? My cleft-palate daughter went to one for a year, and the therapist was able to really tailor what she needed to work on based on her cleft. The school district therapists don't do much work with cleft kids, and the one in my daughter's school frankly told me that she was going to duplicate what the CM therapist was doing because the CM therapist had so much more expertise working with cleft kids. Insurance paid for the CM therapy because the speech issues were due to a physical impairment (they would not have paid if speech issues were not mechanical).
Elizabeth J. (found your blog via the kc yahoo group)
So glad to have your blog bookmarked! Ethan is at my Home Daycare and I am thrilled to see Joaquin doing so well, you are an amazing MOM! What great friends and family he has!!
We just borrowed Love You Like Crazy Cakes from the library... my daughter wanted to read it over and over again. Joaquin is so loved!
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