Pre-operative Nursing Care of a Child with Cleft Lip  

We shall begin with pre-operative nursing care and then focus on post-operative Disorders care. As you know that initial treatment of  cleft  lip is surgical repair. The cleft lip is repaired first, because the infants is unable to take food. The baby is unable to suck / because he cannot create vacuum in his mouth.

The infant who has to undergo plastic surgery for the repair of a cleft lip is admitted a few days in advance. A complete examination including blood tests are carried out. You need to report any sign of  infection such as cold to your senior so that appropriate measures are taken. 

Sometimes  the concerned surgeon prescribes the restraints to prevent the patient from scratches so  that child gets accustomed  to it because  they are necessary post- operatively. 

You need to use syringe with a rubber tip to feed  the baby before and after surgery,  so that sucking motions must be avoided in order to decrease tension on the suture line. The procedure for feeding newborns with cleft lip and palate  is discussed in Paediatric Nursing, Practical) [see  Fig].