Celebrating PoshanMaah with month long awareness and outreach campaign
NGO Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft care organization, and its partner hospital National Heart Institute in New Delhi have launched a nutrition programme specially for children born with cleft lip and palate.
Children with cleft lip and palate are at an increased risk of being malnourished especially in the early months of life as they have a gap in their lip and/or palate, face difficulties in feeding and milk/food can spill out from their nose.
Proper nutrition and guidance can ensure that children born with cleft lip and palate have a better chance at surviving infancy, being adequately nourished, and being healthy enough to receive safe surgical treatment.
The newly launched nutrition programme at National Heart Institute will counsel mothers on how to feed and care for their child with cleft lip and palate, while also supporting the specialized nutritional needs of cleft affected children.
Smile Train’s nutrition programme includes 3 levels of support for feeding and nutrition: feeding counseling for mothers and families including the protective benefits of breastfeeding; nutrition assessment for patients with clefts; and nutrition support before and after surgery.