Pregnant women should take nutritious food and overcome obesity to avoid cleft lip and cleft palate problems among infants, according to renowned doctors and experts who came to the city from across the country to participate in ‘Smile Please’ medical camp organised on Monday at Tirumala Hospital here.
They felt that passive smoking by pregnant women could also be one of the reasons for cleft problems in newborn babies.
After the inauguration of the camp by MLA Kolagatla Veerabhadra Swamy, the doctors performed surgeries to nearly 95 patients brought from East Godavari, West Godavari and the North Andhra districts.
Tirumala Hospital MD K.Tirumala Prasad, surgical team leader M. Prashakar (Hyderabad), chief paediatrician M. Pradeep Reddy (Hyderabad), CSR-head of Muthoot Fincorp Prasanth Kumar Nellikal (Tiruvananthapuram), Mission Smile director Dalip Pande (Mumbai) and others discussed the cleft problems being faced by children in many parts of the country.
“At least one among 700 newborns is affected by the problem. Instead of worrying about such children’s future, parents should bring them for surgery. Six-month-old children can undergo the operations. The operations are done free of cost with the collective efforts of Tirumala Hospitals, Muthoot Fincorp and Mission Smile organisation,” Dr. Tirumala Prasad told the media.
Medical Superintendent of Tirumala Hospitals Ch. Mahesh said that the operations would continue till Thursday.
