Counseling: Cleft lip and palate.
Good morning Mrs. Smith I am Dr. Munagapati, senior house officer in the department of paediatrics. Congratulations on the birth of your baby boy. I came to talk to you about the defect in his upper lip. This is called a cleft lip. The defect also extends to the roof of his mouth. And this is called a cleft palate. This is due to the failure of fusion of the two parts of lip and the palate in the middle. I understand that your are anxious to know what will happen to him. I would like to reassure you that this is not a life threatening condition.
In the near future he will need surgery to repair the defect. I will show you some photos of babies that have undergone surgery. The operation is performed by plastic surgeons. It is possible to close the defect and leave behind only a very small scar. The lip is repaired at 3 months and the palate at 1 year.
However at this moment it is important to concentrate on his feeding. If you are breast feeding you might need some help from our breast-feeding nurse. If your are planning to bottle feed, he will need a special teat so that the defect of his palate will be covered. This prevents milk from going into his nose. Other than that you need not take any other special precautions. I will also refer you to the CLAPA team cleft lip and palate association. One of the nurses from this team will talk to you again about feeding techniques.