Baby Born With Soft Cleft Palate

Infants with this type of cleft normally have extensive feeding difficulties and are often unable to breast feed successfully.

Baby born with soft cleft palate.

Cleft lip and cleft palate occur when tissues in the baby s face and mouth don t fuse properly. Clefting results when there is not enough tissue in. Although most babies with cleft palate can t breastfeed some babies with a small or narrow cleft of only the soft palate may be able to breastfeed. This type of cleft extends from the lip to the hard or soft palate.

About 1 in every 1 700 babies is born with cleft palate in the united states. 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. Typically clefts are isolated occurring without any other defects.

Cleft lip and palate develop early in pregnancy when separate areas of the face begin to develop individually and then merge. Cleft lip and palate are some of the most common birth conditions that affect a baby s mouth and face. Normally the tissues that make up the lip and palate fuse together in the second and third months of pregnancy. Sometimes infants are born with a cleft lip and palate i e cleft lip palate.

1 causes and risk factors the causes of orofacial clefts among most infants are unknown. Cleft lip and cleft palate are facial and oral malformations that occur very early in pregnancy while the baby is developing inside the mother. 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. Babies with more severe clefts are not able to breastfeed.

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.