Baby Born With Soft Cleft Palate

Normally the tissues that make up the lip and palate fuse together in the second and third months of pregnancy.

Baby born with soft cleft palate.

E very year in the us over 2 600 babies are born with a cleft palate and over 4 400 with a cleft lip. About 1 in every 2 800 babies is born with cleft lip without cleft palate in the united states. Cleft lip and cleft palate are facial and oral malformations that occur very early in pregnancy while the baby is developing inside the mother. Babies with more severe clefts are not able to breastfeed.

Sometimes a baby with a cleft palate may have a small chin and a few babies with this combination may have difficulties with breathing easily. About 1 in every 1 700 babies is born with cleft palate in the united states. Usually an oral surgeon is a part of a treatment team to treat cleft lip or cleft palate along with speech therapists ear and nose specialists and other medical professionals our surgeons offer consultations and treatment for cleft lip and cleft palate at our office in los angeles ca. A lactation specialist can teach you how to pump your breastmilk to give to your baby by bottle.

Typically clefts are isolated occurring without any other defects. This type of cleft extends from the lip to the hard or soft palate. Cleft lip and palate develop early in pregnancy when separate areas of the face begin to develop individually and then merge. 1 causes and risk factors the causes of orofacial clefts among most infants are unknown.

But in babies with cleft lip and cleft palate the fusion never takes place or occurs only part way leaving an opening cleft. Cleft lip and cleft palate occur when tissues in the baby s face and mouth don t fuse properly. Infants with this type of cleft normally have extensive feeding difficulties and are often unable to breast feed successfully. A cleft palate can range from just an opening at the back of the soft palate to a nearly complete separation of the roof of the mouth soft and hard palate.

Sometimes infants are born with a cleft lip and palate i e cleft lip palate.