First of all, a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone for praying for Britty. I really, really appreciate it and know she’s doing well thanks to all of YOU! I got lots of messages, calls, texts, sweet gifts, and so much more. I’m so thankful for each and everyone of you. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU for loving our girl both near and far.
If you missed it, Britt went in for a lip and nose revision surgery on Monday. Britt had her first lip and nose revision in China, but our doctor here in Texas wanted to tweak those a bit for two reasons…1. He thought he could do a great job. 2. The first surgery was when she about eight months old so everything had changed, moved, grown since then. I’m gonna do my best to share as much information as I can, because I’d have loved to read a blog post about this type of surgery/recovery prior to Britt’s for the extra recommendations. When we were in her preop appointments on Thursday her doctor decided he should also lengthen her palate while she was in surgery. I think this can be pretty common for kiddos with a cleft palate. It makes a whole lot of sense to me…her doctor worked on her palate two and a half years ago. While she doesn’t have any holes {often called “fissures” in the cleft world}, everything else had grown except her palate so for speech purposes to help with air flow he thought she needed a little more. I panicked just knowing how much more extensive the recovery would be when you’re now including her palate. Think “feed her whatever she wants” to “only liquids for a week and then you can incorporate some super liquidy foods the next week”. That in itself is a big difference. It’s hard sometimes to do things that are painful even though we know we’ll be so glad we did this.
Monday everything went really well. Her surgery was successful and she did great in recovery. Great enough, in fact, they let us come home Monday afternoon. She was sick for several hours that evening but slept ALL NIGHT LONG {HUGE PRAISE!}. She slept off/on, watched television, and chilled all day yesterday. I spent my day on the couch right beside her, which explains this quick, little blog post. I just wanted you to know we’re so thankful for you and let you know how she’s doing.
Right now she’s on liquids only and I’m not really pushing a ton on her. She’s drinking when she’s thirsty. I know we have a long way to go with this recovery but to help {hopefully}, I ordered her new Frozen cups {I was encouraged to get some new cups she’d think were fun so whatever your kiddo is “into”}. She can only use cups, no straws or anything that will go inside her mouth. Dixie paper cups were our best friend during her first palate surgery so I have those on hand as well.
This saline spray is helping us keep the wounds moisturized. My mom just happened to bring this digital tablet as a little gift and Britt has been drawing and erasing on repeat. Over the next couple weeks, I have smoothies, juice, Gatorade, water, Sprite, angel hair pasta-super liquidy, mashed potatoes, yogurt, and lots of apple sauce. If you have any experience with a similar surgery and have something that worked well during recovery for your child, PLEASE comment with suggestions!! She’s in a good place today but I know she’s gonna get hungry and I’d love any suggestions!
Again, THANK YOU, for all the prayers! Hope you have a great day!
XO
So incredibly thankful that she's done so well so far! Continued prayers for pain AND HUNGER management! 🙂 Love you!
If she likes this-chicken or beef broth heated up! Just a can of the broth from the soup aisle. Life saver when you don’t want something super sweet on a liquid only diet.
I am so thankful it's going well!!! We are still praying for her recovery over here! xx
So glad to hear she is doing well, prayers for a very speedy recovery!!!
So happy to hear this! Thinking of you all and praying for the road to recovery!!!
So thankful she is doing well! Thank you for these posts- we have a 2 yr old cleft baby adopted from China who will need both the surgeries in the future. Your blog is so informative to me!
Have you read Ashley Ann’s blog before? She has an adopted daughter from China that has had cleft-pallet repair also. Scroll through the adoption journey posts and you’ll get to the links for all her posts on the surgery and recovery. http://www.ashleyannphotography.com/blog/adoption/
Hoping for a speedy recovery for your girl! Sending prayers your way!
So happy to hear that she is doing well! I have found that the collagen peptides mix well into juice and my daughter would drink it. So easy to get some protein in her without any flavor! I hope the recovery continues to be comfortable and speedy!
Awesome!!! glad Britt is doing well..prayers for the days ahead.. she will do great I know!
glad to hear Britt is doing well! my son liked mac & cheese and meatloaf with liquid added and then pulverized with the immersion blender. Frankly, that immersion blender was a life-saver – pretty much anything can become "liquid" 🙂
best wishes for a continued smooth recovery!
May sound silly but baby cereal. Old fashioned pablum is sweet and palatable for older kiddos (not like baby food). You can also control how runny it is. It also has lots of calories. Our family has been there!
I say this all the time about my cleftie but I will say it again CLEFT KIDS ARE AMAZING! As for food, soup, soup and more soup! If you have a heavy duty blender like ninja or vitamix, you can puree ANY SOUP into a texture she will be able to tolerate and it will be much more filling for her as she starts feeling better and gets hungry. I can't wait to see pictures! Cleft kids are near and dear to my heart.
Bless her sweet little heart! Praying for super speedy healing! xoxo
That Inspired Chick
I'm not sure what Britt likes to eat but I am Asian and my daughter loves tofu in miso soup. When she was sick I made miso soup with cabbage (boiled long enough for cabbage to get soft and mushy) and soft tofu cut in small pieces. Not sure if you're familiar with miso but it's good for you and found in asian aisle. Very good for you and tasty. My daughter loved it. Or you could just buy the very soft type of tofu and add your own seasoning or sauce and mash tofu up.
I suffered a broken jaw when I was 19 and it was wired shut for 7 weeks. Even after the wires were off I couldn't open my jaw very wide and had to eat soft foods. Lots of mashed potatoes, soup, pudding, milkshakes,ice cream, sherbets and my mother actually bought some of the fruit baby food as well. (Hooray, Hawaiian Delight!). Smoothies weren't really a thing way back in 1984, but that would add a lot of variety if Britt likes them and you could add the whey protein powder.
I make chicken broth in my crockpot. I just throw a whole chicken in with some water. Sometimes I add garlic and bay leaves. I sometimes add celery too. I do not add the onion or carrots as some recipes recommend. I just don't like the flavor. Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Sometimes I use lemon pepper. I don't measure anything just eyeball it. I let it slow cook for many hours to get the nutrients from the bones. I think the last batch I cooked was 20 hours. I did not save the chicken to eat after it cooked that long. I pray her recovery continues to go smoothly.
Had trouble trying to leave a comment using Bloglovin' – but that happens to me sometimes. Just wanted you to know that I am praying for your darling baby girl. Hope her recovery has continued to progress. When we couldn't get my granddaughter to eat much of anything, I made potato soup and she was in pig heaven. Might be worth a try!!