Cleft Lip and/or Palette

[Pretty Butterfly]

Well I guess being in the special needs section, I should explain What is a cleft? At about 6-8 wks gestation, the bones and skin form over the face. A cleft is a sort of defect where that hasn't happened correctly. There are all sorts of clefting. Unilateral -one sided-
Bilateral - two sided where there is a gap on both sides of the nostril-
Complete - goes up the nose-
Incomplete - only goes up a small way, looks like thieir lip is curled up-
It can also affect the gum and /or soft and hard palate ( roof of mouth).Kane as you can see has a complete unilateral cleft of the lip, gum and palate. The biggest concern when first born is feeding. Breastfeeding a cleft palate is practically impossable as they have no suction. There are special bottles that need to be taught how to use and bub how to drink from!! Once that hurdle is over, it's on to operations. I'll post about those too later on.
You may of seen a cleft affected person and not realised!! A small thin scar from lip up to nose is all that you can see in most cases. Think of gorgeous Joquin Pheonix (sp?) and thats how my little man may look one day!!!! I hope so!!!