Baby Born With Soft Cleft Palate

Typically clefts are isolated occurring without any other defects.

Baby born with soft cleft palate.

This type of cleft extends from the lip to the hard or soft palate. 1 causes and risk factors the causes of orofacial clefts among most infants are unknown. Cleft lip and cleft palate occur when tissues in the baby s face and mouth don t fuse properly. Babies with more severe clefts are not able to breastfeed.

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 palate develop early in pregnancy when separate areas of the face begin to develop individually and then merge. About 1 in every 2 800 babies is born with cleft lip without cleft palate in the united states. Sometimes infants are born with a cleft lip and palate i e cleft lip 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. 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.

Cleft lip and palate are some of the most common birth conditions that affect a baby s mouth and face. A lactation specialist can teach you how to pump your breastmilk to give to your baby by bottle. 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. 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.

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