Cleft Stories

A recent article published in The Hindu, India’s national newspaper, talks about the lack of psychological support for families of children with clefts, and the lack of support for the children themselves. The article titled, “Bring a smile to their faces” mentions Emily and this blog. The author of the article, Uma Sreedevi, was born with a cleft herself and contacted me prior to publishing the piece.

Uma quotes a surgeon in the piece who says that kids don’t need psychological support because they have “Perfect speech correction and facial appearance” by the age of 3 to 7. Um, huh?? I wonder if this is the prevalent view of surgeons or just this particular guy. Maybe he’s thinking in terms of clinical correction/appearance. No wonder there’s a lack of psychological support! I’m really glad the article brings the psychological issues to the forefront – too often the focus is on the medical issues – surgery, feeding problems, speech, etc., but the effects of a craniofacial condition such as a cleft go way beyond the physical problems.

In any case, I’m honored that she mentions me and Emily, and links to the blog. I do want to point out that the quote she uses in the article is not one that I wrote, but another mom – Patricia Bacon Smith – wrote that quote and allowed me to use it on Emily’s birth announcement.

When your mermaids
Break the water’s surface
Swishing their tails
Bubbling up to the top
Of your pretend sea
Where the bright fish bob
Like tiny, plastic buoys
What do you see?
Making them dive and play
In our small pedestal sink
Your sleeves rolled up
So you can feel the cool, crisp
Mermaid habitat
You are somewhere far away
Diving deep in toddler dreams
Where coral castles lurk
Just beyond the porcelain rim
Of that plain white sink
Is that why you cry
At the end of your bath
When the bubbles are gone
The water, tepid and old
The mermaids at rest, silent
Between your feet
Listening as you sing them a sweet song
Of waves, dancing tails, and magic.

Emily loves to play in our bathroom sink with her toy mermaids. She also loves to play with the mermaids in the tub. She has a stuffed mermaid doll she sleeps with and she was a mermaid for Halloween. I may be spotting a trend here.

The above pictures are from last month before the mermaids entered the scene. Those plastic fish are from a game I bought the girls.