First the food enters the mouth and that is where our child has a cleft palate. The salivary glands break down the food after being chewed by the teeth and makes it easier for the food to go to the pharynx where the oropharynx and laryngopharynx lead to the esophagus. In the esophagus the food goes down by a process called peristalsis towards the stomach. At the stomach, which is a C shaped bag basically that holds the food to digest with the acid that is in there. along the way the food passes the liver that produces bile for digestive purposes, and the gallbladder which stores that bile. After the stomach the food hits the small intestine where the food is digested even more as it goes through its ≈ 20 foot length. then onto the large intestine