Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Cleft Lip and Palate. The Details.

Having a three week old is not exactly conducive to a good night's sleep. Having a three week old who is also has a hard time eating is less so. She is currently lying next to me, after having eaten her four ounces, burped twice, and spitting up once, a silly newborn smile on her face as she slowly drifts off into infant dream land. I type away as fast as I can to get enough info into this post before she wakes up to be changed and fed again.

As far as cleft lip and palates go, there really is no "good" place to start. I suppose the best place for anyone to start is to start where I did: a pdf from the Children's Hospital in Denver, Colorado.  After branching out and viewing many more websites and medical journals (links will be added later) I have expanded my knowledge as best I can without becoming a dedicated student of the subject (considering I have a newborn I don't quite have that kind of time). I offer all of that here.

A cleft lip is an opening in the lip, likewise a cleft palate is an opening in the mouth's roof. It is possible to have a cleft in the lip, mouth and gums or any combination of the three. A cleft lip and palate occur during the fifth and seventh week of an embryo's development. During those weeks the gums, mouth and lips pull together and form. For one reason or another, 1 in 700 embryos fail to complete this part of their development.* It is more common to have both a cleft in the lip and palate, it is also more common to occur on the left side of the face.

The cleft lip and palate can affect appearance, feeding, speech, ears, hearing, teeth and can impact a child socially. With regards to the appearance: there are no missing parts of the baby's body, they are all there, they just didn't come together. They can be unilateral (on one side of the mouth), bilateral (on both sides), complete (all the way to the back of the throat) or incomplete (partially in the roof of the mouth). Kaylee has a complete unilateral cleft lip and palate.

Children with cleft lips and palates may have problems with their speech. Certain consonants are more difficult for the child to pronounce. Kaylee will be needing speech pathologists help later on during her preschool years. She will be more prone to pronouncing vowels.

Because of the cleft in the roof of her mouth she is unable to suction properly. She is unable to eat as a regular baby should, sucking on a bottle or nipple properly. Instead she must compress the nipples in order to pull liquids out using a good portion of her palate, and her tongue. As such she uses a special nipple called a Haberman Feeder. It allows for easier compression.

The treatment for this condition is a lengthy process which includes several different surgical procedures and dentistry. Her treatment will last well into her teenage years, and possibly into adulthood depending on the severity of the cleft. First, doctors will perform surgery to close the opening in the lip, usually around 3-6 months of age. Between 9 to 18 months they will perform surgery to close the opening of the palate, these surgeries are usually done per the doctors preference.

What does all of this mean? It means I didn't do anything wrong. It means that things happen, and that now we just move on and deal with what has happened. As for Kaylee, she is a happy, healthy baby. She is gaining weight at a normal pace, and even though we have some issues with the special nipple for feeding (excessive gas being one of them) all is going well so far. Tomorrow we meet with her pediatric dentist to have the first step in her treatment started, and that is going to be another post all together.

*All information is from notes that I, Jessica, took from the meetings with her various doctors as well as from various sources on the internet which will be added to this site at a later date...Kaylee needs to be changed and all that first :) Ahhh, life with a newborn.

No comments:

Post a Comment