Cleft lip occurs in about 1 in 700 births, is the fourth most common birth defect, the first most common facial birth defect and, most importantly, a repairable birth defect. However armed with these facts most parents feel totally alone.
Cleft lip is caused when the lips do not join together early in pregnancy usually in the first 7-9 weeks gestation. Its cause is not known and can be guesstimated to many factors including genetics, smoking, certain medications, as well as enviromental factors. Many experts agree it is something the mother has no control over and should try not to dwell on the causes nor place blame on herself.Now open your mouth. Do you see the seam on the roof of your mouth? Sometimes you can feel it with your finger or your tongue. That's where your palate grew together in the middle. You can see that the palate goes from behind your front teeth all the way to the back of your mouth.
How Does a Kid Get Cleft Lip or Cleft Palate?
The word cleft means a gap or split between two things. A cleft lip is a split in the upper lip. This can happen on one or two sides of the lip, creating a wider opening into the nose. A cleft palate is a split in the roof of the mouth. This leaves a hole between the nose and the mouth. Sometimes a cleft lip and cleft palate occur together in the same person. Cleft lip and cleft palate are very common and occur in about 1 or 2 of every 1,000 babies born in the United States each year.
Cleft lip and cleft palate are birth defects, which means they happen while a baby is developing inside his or her mother. Normally, the mouth and nose of a baby develop between the first 6 and 12 weeks of growth. In some babies, parts of the lips and roof of the mouth don't grow together. Because the lips and the palate develop separately, it's possible to have cleft lip, cleft palate, or both.
We don't always know why a particular baby has cleft lip or cleft palate. Sometimes the condition runs in families. This means that a person with cleft lip or cleft palate may have a relative with the same thing. Other times, cleft palate is part of a syndrome, meaning there are birth defects in other body parts, too. Sometimes a cleft may be related to what happened during a mother's pregnancy, like a medication she may have taken, a lack of certain vitamins, or exposure to cigarette smoke. Most of the time, however, the cause of the cleft is unknown and could not be prevented.
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From : kidshealth , associatedcontent
