As we been affectionately been calling our soon to be born son, As most of you know is going to be born with a cleft lip and palette, We were told at our 20 week scan so we’ve had plenty time to prepare and get used to the idea. This is one of the most common birth defects in the UK and America about 1 in 700 babies are born this way, it happens during early development around 7-9 weeks of gestation, quite simply your face grows from the sides into the middle and in his case just did not match up, the offical name is a unilateral Cleft lip, which mean it’s just on the one side and he has a hole in his palette from what they can tell goes 1/3rd of the way back into his hard palette. This is completely fixable in his early life starting with lip surgery at 3 months, palette surgery at 12 months, then possible gum line surgery which includes a bone graft at age 8 so his adult teeth come in properly and maybe face corrective surgery at 15 to 18 depending on if he wants, needs a nose job or jaw readjustment.
I thought it might be a nice idea to do a blog about this, that way you can all see before and after pictures and follow along with his progress, I’ll try and keep you all updated as possible even though I think the next few months are going to be very busy. Wish us luck!.
