cleft lip speech problems??

[ceevee]

My baby boy was born with a small cleft lip , it doesn't extend into his nose , he will be having surgery hopefully at the end of Oct. he will be 4 months, my question is will he have speech problems I hear his voice might be nasal

[Maryanne]

Hi, I'm sorry, I don't have an answer to your question. I am now searching this sight for insight on my son's speech development. I have decided to get my son's speech and hearing tested.


My son also had a small cleft Lip which did not extend to his nose. He had his surgery at 3 months of age and everything went great. He turned two in June and I am concerned because he is not talking that much. He says some words but no sentences. If he wants something he will usually grab you by the hand and take you to what he wants. Our pediatrician did not seem very concerned and friends tell me boys speak later than girls. I don't think he has a hearing problem because he listens to me and will repeat me sometimes. I have a daughter who will be four in December and I know she was speaking a lot more when she was his age.
My son also has a follow up appointment with his plastic surgeon in November and we are concerned with the thickness of his lip. Our surgeon already told us when our son turns five he would need another operation because the top part of his lip on the one side goes up a little bit.
I hope your son's operation is a success! Good Luck!


Maryanne

[ceevee]

Thank You Maryanne for your answer, hmmm I guess I won't really know until after , I'm sure your little boy is fine : ) The surgeon who is going to perform David's surgery told us that , a larger percent of Hispanic (which we are) baby's lips tend to pull up a bit after the surgery and the lip starts to scar.. I hope that doesn't happen , but again thanks ...

[amy]

Hi, I have a mother in law and a sister in law both with a cleft lip only and neither of them have any problems or have had any problems with speech. Hope this helps. My son has a cleft palate along with the cleft lip and has had some speech therapy but is now easily understood and not nasaly, but to answer your question I don't think that there would be any problems with speech.

[sarah]

Hi,
Our son had both a cleft lip and palate. His speech also seemed slow in commin to us, but again, given he was a) a boy and b) a second child, we didn't worry too much. Then, out of the blue, the words, sentences just kept on coming. He's now 2.5 years old and can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little star - to name one song. I would say his first batch of real words started around 20 months (yes he was babbling before, but no real words).


We are lucky because his speech has been assessed every 3 months since he turned about 18 months old. So we always had a good idea of how he was doing from the experts.


As for funny sounding speech, not at all. I have been told that the earlier the cleft palate repair is done, then the less the liklihood of speech problems later. I would have thought that funny sounding speech could only happen in children with physical abnormalities inside their nasal cavaty ie cleft palate. I can't see how a cleft lip alone would impact speech.


Sarah