Nims brings wide smiles on cleft lip kids

HYDERABAD: Five-year-old B Rajeswari was born with a cleft palate. Her parents were not hopeful that she would be able to speak in her lifetime.
The girl is now able to speak normally after undergoing 'corrective babbling', a speech therapy, suggested by doctors at the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims). Unlike institutional speech therapies, the corrective babbling can be done sitting at home, say experts.
In Andhra Pradesh, at least 2,500 children are born with cleft palate every year and half of them never see a doctor for correcting the defect.
In addition, there would be a backlog of about 50,000 children with the problem, according to Prof D Mukunda Reddy, head of plastic surgery department at Nims.
Speaking to The Times of India, Reddy said a centre was being developed at the Nims for correcting the cleft palate among children. It would be operational in next six months.
Currently, the surgeries and other related treatment are being done with existing infrastructure, he said. Nims has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Reconstructive Surgery Foundation (RSF) Earth Speak, a US-based voluntary organisation, to provide necessary training in corrective babbling for speech therapists, who would in turn train the parents.
RSF Earth Speak director Andi Jobe said the institutional speech therapy, apparently, failed in countries like India due to high costs involved in it.
"The corrective babbling is cost effective and within months the child, who underwent surgery for cleft palate, will speak normally," she said. Andi Jobe said the technic was developed after trail and error methods.
And, it proved successful as parents will personally teach their kids after undergoing a five-day training, she said.
Mukunda Reddy said an incentive would be given to parents if they get children operated for cleft palate before the first birthday.
The incentive would be in the form of 'kisan patras' and Rs 2,000 for male child and Rs 3,000 for female child, he said.