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Surgery Repairs Cleft Palate Birth Defect
Kathy Waters/Highlands Today
Bauer Smehyl, 6 months old, was born with a cleft lip and palate, but has had lip surgery by specialists in Boston. He will have another surgery in March on his palate.
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Published: February 1, 2008
SEBRING — A light red scar shows under the bridge of Bauer Smehyl's nose as he starts to cry, but the only other hint to his condition comes from his baby bottle.
After his mom filled a long bottle with milk, Stacy Smehyl grabbed several parts to assemble a three-inch-long Haberman nozzle. Bauer uses this nozzle so he can chew rather than suck to get the milk.
That is because the 6-month-old was born with a cleft palate. He also had a cleft lip before surgeons in Boston stitched it together in December.
Stacy said she found out through an ultrasound 30 weeks into her pregnancy when her husband, Adam, asked the ultrasonographer if Bauer's lip was supposed to look the way it did.
She said she and Adam felt "shocked, scared, extremely scared.
"When we found out about his cleft, we had nothing to look at. It was not the most motivating thing," Smehyl said of the photos and information she found online.
She expressed it in a blog that she started in April 24, 2007, the day the ultrasound was taken. The expecting mother wrote in the second entry, "my husband and I just took turns crying the rest of the night" after they did a quick Internet search.
From there, she went into detail describing the possible baby bottles she could have for Bauer.
Before Bauer's lip surgery, mother and son met another girl with a cleft palate and kept in touch with her parents, according to her blog. Afterward, Smehyl was hopeful.
"When I saw Ivy I just couldn't stop staring at her lip," Smehyl wrote. "It was perfect. There was almost no evidence of any scarring left."
Smehyl found a lot of support through the entire ordeal. Her long-time friend Susan Bible was able to relate, having a 7-year-old daughter, Emily, who was born with a cleft palate as well.
"When she found out about her baby, I grabbed her one day and told her," Bible said, referring to Emily's cleft palate. Smehyl taught Emily in her kindergarten class but never knew Emily had it.
Smehyl's doctors were also supportive, she said, but one specialist jarred her when he mentioned having an abortion as an option for her.
"We wouldn't have aborted for any reason," she said. "Much less for something repairable."
Bauer gets squirmy in his mother's lap sometimes and gets bouncy with his "exer-saucer." His eyes fix on strangers and he breaks his silence in a slow-starting cry when he eyes an empty baby bottle.
He still has another "post-op, pre-op" visit to Boston Tuesday as Smehyl prepares for a scheduled palate surgery in March.
After that, "you got to wait and see," Smehyl said.
ABOUT CLEFT PALATE AND CLEFT LIP
• Cleft palate and cleft lip are a deformation of the lip that develops in embryoes.
• The causes are unknown, but it's suspected genetics and environmental factors may cause it.
• A child with a cleft lip or palate tends to be more susceptible to colds, hearing loss, and speech defects.
• Reconstructive surgery can repair cleft lips and palates, while plastic surgery can repair more severe cases.
• Clefts occur in one in 700 to 1,000 births.
• Clefts occur more often in children of Asian, Latino, or Native American descent.
SOURCE: http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/ears/cleft_li...>
TO HELP
The Children's Services Foundation has set up a fund to help Bauer Smehyl and his family with the expenses of his therapy and surgeries. To donate or for more information, call 381-4040 or send donations to:
Children's Services Foundation
PO Box 7125
Sebring 33872-0103
STACY SMEHYL'S BLOG: http://www.ssmehyl.blogspot.com>
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