“I’m excited to finally be with my ‘peeps,’” said Olivia Chartand of Ludlow, Massachusetts, at FFC’s first Teen and Young Adult Forum, held at Children’s Hospital Boston. Never before had she had the opportunity to meet others like her born with cleft lip and palate.
Our heartfelt thanks to Jane McDaid, who recently resigned from her position as FFC co-president after leading the organization for seven years.
All sibling relationships have their ups and downs and tend to be a blend of loyalty and rivalry. “Families in which a child has a craniofacial difference are more alike than different from other families,” says Elisa Bronfman, PhD, a staff psychologist in the Medical Coping Clinic at Children’s Hospital Boston.
Advanced imaging technology is giving physicians and parents a high-definition view of babies before birth. Three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) produce detailed pictures that enable physicians to visualize the growing fetus and diagnose facial conditions, such as cleft lip and palate.
As a medical social worker, Cassandra L. Aspinall, MSW, discusses face-altering procedures with children and their parents to make sure their expectations are realistic.“It’s fine if someone thinks,‘I will be more positive about myself if my nose looks better,’” says Aspinall.“But there’s nothing worse than a child thinking an operation is all that’s needed to improve the chances of having a boyfriend or girlfriend or to be accepted by the popular kids for the first time.”
New research suggests that taking a “wait-and-see” approach to the treatment of ear infections may be best. A recent study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 62%, or nearly two-thirds, of children diagnosed with a middle ear infection got better on their own—without antibiotics—within 48 hours.
At birth, Rebecca Carley’s first-born son, James (pictured below at nine months), was a healthy baby with a round head covered with light brown hair.As time went by, she noticed that he always slept with his head to the left side and when awake, often tracked objects with his eyes rather than turning to look at them.After a couple of months, she was startled to see that he had developed a flat spot on his head.Although James’s pediatrician recommended physical therapy for his neck muscles, she expressed little concern about the flattening of his head. But she suggested a possible evaluation at Children’s Hospital Boston.
