About 2 weeks old with lip taping. This taping is meant to bring in the prolabium which is his little lip piece in the middle and premaxilla which is the little chunk of gums just under his prolabium. We did this taping until he got the NAM at about 5 weeks.
I wore him in my wrap (Ellaroo for the curious) while I fed him to give him that skin to skin contact my breastfed babies got and soothe a very fussy little guy.
Matt holds an unhappy Sean Michael. About 4 weeks.
Here is Dr. Garfinkle, the dentist/orthodontist who does the NAM (nasoalveolar molding) procedure at Doernbecher. This is the appt where the NAM was fitted for the first time since the mold wast taken. Sean Michael is about 5 weeks old here. He is not happy with being messed with, but nothing is hurting him at this time.
These photos give a really good view of Sean Michael's lip, nose and palate before the NAM.
Here he is with the NAM and his brother and sister at about 8 weeks
Hi Megan,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you remember me or not- we've emailed briefly before via cleftAdvocate. I think it was last spring when you were pregnant with Keenan. I just wanted to let you know that it was so fun to read this blog post. The NAM has done amazing stuff for him. I look at that picture of his cleft at birth (that shows his palate cleft/inside of the mouth) and compared with the pictures at the top- it is amazing!!! I can't believe how symmetrical it has made his nostrils and brought that cleft together on the right side.
Amazing! Good luck with your upcoming surgery.
Hope you are well in Oregon. I'm going back to visit my family in Corvallis in April. If you want to get together, let me know- I'll have my 2 boys with me. -Anna Fowler