the risk of an unborn child of a cleft lip mother

[karen]

i have recently found out that we are expecting our first child and i hope that someone out there knows the percentage factor of my child getting on also. please help

[Calvero]

Hey Karen . I'm 28, cleft, and a mom of a two year old non-cleft girl. I have heard that the percentage of us having cleft children are around 7%, I believe it doubles if your husbnad also is cleft. I think it's also a little higher if you have a family history of it... not sure on the stats so don't come suing after me if I got it wrong LOL.


But most cleft parents that I have talked with have "normal" kids with no problems. My little girl had jaundice but that was it. Just a few weeks under a light and she was fine .


The way I see it is that if I did have a cleft child, I would be much more equiped on what to expect. My parents never heard of it so they were in a whole different world both medically and emotionally. And although I didn't have many surgeries, the technology on how to treat it medically is much better than when we were born. And I also will know what it feels like when the kids start the teasing.


Best wishes to your soon arriving buddle of joy !


Kim, The Cleft Club
<a href="http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/thecleftclub">http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/thecleftclub</a>

[Edith]

Congrats and hope everything goes well. I don't know much about percentage, I know my husband and I don't have anyone in the family with any clefts, however we had a son with a cleft lip/ palate. We were at that time told that if we have any more children that the percent of having another child as our cleft baby was 5%. If it doesn't run in your family or his, I would say you have about as much risk as anybody who never had anybody in their family with one. HAVE FAITH! Good luck. The most important thing is that the baby have no life threatening illnesses, everything else is workable.