How do cleft lip and cleft palate occur ?
Each of us had a cleft lip and cleft palate during the early weeks of development in our mother's womb. Normally, the tissues that form the palate (the roof of your mouth) and the upper lip come together in the middle and join (fuse). You can see the lines of fusion in the "Cupid's bow" under your own nose, and feel the ridge and line in the middle of your palate (the roof of your mouth). If your baby has a cleft, this fusion did not happen when he or she was developing.
Why does fusion of the palate fail to happen?
In most cases, we simply don't know why lip and palate development go wrong.
About 1 in 600 babies has a cleft lip or cleft palate. Race and gender play a small role. Clefts are most common in Asians. They are less common in whites and least common in blacks. Boys are more often affected than girls.
In some families, clefts appear in several family members, so heredity is important. Sometimes substances in the environment, called teratogens, may be associated with clefts. But most babies with clefts have no known relatives with clefts and no known exposure to teratogens. A few babies with clefts also have other abnormalities. Your baby's doctor will look for these other abnormalities and tell you what he or she finds.
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What happens now?
Remember that cleft lip and cleft palate are not dangerous to your child. Surgical repair of the cleft is done by choice. It can be done when the child is the right age and size and is in good enough general health to tolerate surgery.
Surgery is often done in several stages. Parents are usually eager to have at least the visible cleft lip repaired early, but this is often not done until the baby is 10 weeks old and weighs 10 pounds. Later, the cleft can be corrected by bringing together the tissues that should have fused before birth. Before the abnormality is corrected with surgery, a prosthesis, or artificial palate, may be used to fill the gap in a cleft palate so that your baby can nurse and make the sounds that are the beginnings of speech.
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