Cleft lip and palate
Overview
A cleft is a gap or split in the upper lip and/or roof of the mouth (palate). It is present from birth.
Causes
A cleft lip or palate happens when the structures that form the upper lip or palate fail to join together when a baby is developing in the womb. The exact reason why this happens to some babies is often unclear. It's very unlikely to have been caused by anything you did or did not do during pregnancy. In a few cases, cleft lip and palate is associated with: the genes a child inherits from their parents (although most cases are a one-off)smoking in pregnancyordrinking alcohol while pregnantobesity during pregnancya lack offolic acidduring pregnancytaking certain medicines in early pregnancy, such as some anti-seizure medicines In some cases, a cleft lip or palate can occur as part of a condition that causes a wider range of birth defects, such as22q11 deletion syndrome(sometimes called DiGeorge or velocardiofacial syndrome) and Pierre Robin sequence. The Cleft Lip and Palate Association has more information on Pierre Robin sequence
Treatment
Cleft lip and cleft palate are treated at specialist NHS cleft centres. Your child will usually have a long-term care plan that outlines the treatments and assessments they'll need as they grow up. The main treatments are: surgery – an operation to correct a cleft lip is usually done when your baby is 3 to 6 months and an operation to repair a cleft palate is usually done at 6 to 12 monthsfeeding support – you may need advice about positioning your baby on your breast to help them feed, or you might need to feed them using a special type of bottlemonitoring hearing – a baby born with cleft palate has a higher chance of glue ear, which may affect hearing. Close monitoring of their hearing is important and if glue ear affects their hearing significantly, a hearing aid may be fitted or small tubes called grommets may be placed in their ears to drain the fluidspeech and language therapy – a speech and language therapist will monitor your child's speech and language development throughout their childhood and help with any speech and language problemsgood dental hygiene andorthodontic treatment– you'll be given advice aboutlooking after your child's teeth, and they may needbracesif their adult teeth don't come through properly Read more about how cleft lip and palate is treated