Health Library

Cleft lip and palate repair - discharge

Orofacial cleft - discharge; Craniofacial birth defect repair - discharge; Cheiloplasty - discharge; Cleft rhinoplasty - discharge; Palatoplasty - discharge; Tip rhinoplasty - discharge

A cleft lip and palate repair is a surgery to fix birth defects of the upper lip and roof of the mouth (palate). This article discusses how to care for your child after leaving the hospital.

I Would Like to Learn About:

When Your Child was in the Hospital

Your child had surgery to repair birth defects that caused a cleft in which the lip or the roof of the mouth did not grow together normally while your child was in the womb. Your child had general anesthesia (asleep and not feeling pain) for the surgery.

What to Expect at Home

After anesthesia, it is normal for children to have stuffy noses. They may need to breathe through their mouths for the first week. There will be some drainage from their mouths and noses. The drainage should go away after about 1 week.

Incision Care

Clean the incision (surgery wound) after feeding your child. Your child's surgeon may give you a special liquid (hydrogen peroxide) for cleaning the wound. Use a cotton swab to do so. If not, clean with warm water and soap. To clean the wound:

• Wash your hands before starting.
• Begin at the end that is closer to the nose.
• Always begin cleaning away from the incision in small circles. Do not rub right on the wound.
• Put antibiotic ointment on your child's incision after it is clean and dry, if your child's surgeon recommended it.

Some stitches will break apart or go away on their own. Your child's surgeon will need to take others out at the first follow-up visit. Do not remove your child's stitches yourself unless instructed by their surgeon.

You will need to protect your child's incision by:

• Feeding your child only the way your child's surgeon told you.
• Not giving your child a pacifier.
• Placing your baby in an infant seat, on their backs, to sleep.
• Not holding your child with their face toward your shoulder. They can bump their nose and harm their incision.
• Keeping all hard toys away from your child.
• Using clothes that do not need to be pulled over the child's head or face.

Feeding

Young infants should be eating only breast milk or formula. When feeding, hold your infant in an upright position.

Use a cup or the side of a spoon for giving your child drinks. If you use a bottle, use only the kind of bottle and nipple that your child's surgeon has recommended.

Older infants or young children will need to have their food softened or pureed for some time after surgery so it is easy to swallow. Use a blender or food processor to prepare food for your child.

Children who are eating foods other than breast milk or formula should be sitting when they eat. Feed them only with a spoon. Do not use forks, straws, chopsticks, or other utensils that can harm their incisions.

There are many good food choices for your child after surgery. Always make sure the food is cooked until it is soft, then pureed. Good food options include:

• Cooked meats, fish, or chicken. Blend with broth, water, or milk.
• Mashed tofu or mashed potatoes. Make sure they are smooth and thinner than normal.
• Yogurt, pudding, or gelatin.
• Small curd cottage cheese.
• Formula or milk.
• Creamy soups.
• Cooked cereals and baby foods.

Foods your child should not eat include:

• Seeds, nuts, bits of candy, chocolate chips, or granola (not plain, nor mixed into other foods)
• Gum, jelly beans, hard candy, or suckers
• Chunks of meat, fish, chicken, sausage, hot dogs, hard cooked eggs, fried vegetables, lettuce, fresh fruit, or solid pieces of canned fruit or vegetables
• Peanut butter (not creamy or chunky)
• Toasted bread, bagels, pastries, dry cereal, popcorn, pretzels, crackers, potato chips, cookies, or any other crunchy foods

Activity

Your child may play quietly. Avoid running and jumping until your child's surgeon says it is OK.

Your child may go home with arm cuffs or splints. These will keep them from rubbing or scratching the incision. Your child will need to wear the cuffs most of the time for about 2 weeks. Put on the cuffs over a long-sleeve shirt. Tape them to their shirt to keep them in place if needed.

• You may take the cuffs off 2 or 3 times a day. Take off only 1 at a time.
• Move your child's arms and hands around, always holding on and keeping them from touching the incision.
• Make sure there is no red skin or sores on your child's arms where the cuffs are placed.
• Your child's surgeon will tell you when you can stop using the cuffs.

Ask your surgeon when it is safe to go swimming. Children may have ear tubes and, if so, you will need to keep water out of their ears.

Follow-up Care

Your child's health care provider will refer your child to a speech therapist. They may also make a referral to a dietician. Most times, speech therapy lasts 2 months. You will be told when to make a follow-up appointment.

When to Call the Doctor

Contact your child's surgeon if:

• Any part of the incision is opening or stitches come apart.
• The incision is red, or there is drainage.
• There is any significant bleeding from the incision, mouth, or nose. If bleeding does not stop with gentle pressure, go to the emergency room or call 911 or the local emergency number.
• Your child is not able to drink any liquids.
• Your child has a fever of 101°F (38.3°C) or higher.
• Your child has a fever that does not go away after 2 or 3 days.
• Your child has problems breathing.

Related Information

References

Dhar VK. Cleft lip and palate. In: Kliegman RM, St. Geme JW, Blum NJ, et al, eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 22nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2025:chap 356.

Dougherty MI, Wang TD, Milczuk HA. Cleft lip and palate. In: Francis HW, Haughey BH, Hillel AT, et al, eds. Cummings Otolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery. 8th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2026:chap 186.

Review Date: 4/11/2026  

Reviewed By: Ann M. Rogers, MD, FACS, Professor Emeritus, Department of Surgery, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, for Health Content Provider (www.urac.org). URAC's accreditation program is an independent audit to verify that A.D.A.M. follows rigorous standards of quality and accountability. A.D.A.M. is among the first to achieve this important distinction for online health information and services. Learn more about A.D.A.M.'s editorial policy, editorial process and privacy policy. A.D.A.M. is also a founding member of Hi-Ethics. This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.

The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, timeliness, or correctness of any translations made by a third-party service of the information provided herein into any other language.

© 1997- 2026 A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

All content on this site including text, images, graphics, audio, video, data, metadata, and compilations is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may view the content for personal, noncommercial use. Any other use requires prior written consent from Ebix. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display, publish, reverse-engineer, adapt, modify, store beyond ordinary browser caching, index, mine, scrape, or create derivative works from this content. You may not use automated tools to access or extract content, including to create embeddings, vectors, datasets, or indexes for retrieval systems. Use of any content for training, fine-tuning, calibrating, testing, evaluating, or improving AI systems of any kind is prohibited without express written consent. This includes large language models, machine learning models, neural networks, generative systems, retrieval-augmented systems, and any software that ingests content to produce outputs. Any unauthorized use of the content including AI-related use is a violation of our rights and may result in legal action, damages, and statutory penalties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Ebix reserves the right to enforce its rights through legal, technological, and contractual measures.