Genetic Crap Shoot

[Martin]

I am have a cleft lip/palet. My two older brothers do as well. The most severe case begins with my oldest brother and is less severe for our middle brother and is the least severe for me. I have no speech impediment, and only a small scar along the middle of my upper lip. Our younger sister was not born with this birth defect, and our parents are not afflicted. I can not find any evidence along either side of my parents families. No Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts, or Cousins are afflicted either, my brothers and I are the only three born with this genetic trait.


My question is, my wife and I are thinking of starting a family and I want to know what is the likely hood that my children will be born with this trait? Any serious medical opinions would be greatly appreciated.

[Jeff Alterman]

I have a submucous cleft hard palate and a very tiny hare lip too, and there are no relative that I know about that have a cleft. It is possible however that there could be a "lost" ancestor og mine that had a cleft and I don't have any knowledge of that particular person. You could check your ancestors and see if there was an ancestor that had a cleft from a three or more generations ago. It is always possible that some distant ancestor in your family had a cleft and it skipped a few generations. Sometimes these traits will skip a number of generations before they appear again. You might find it interesting to find out. Thankfully for you it appears that you overcame your cleft quite well and from what you are mentioning your face looks quite normal without my viewing photographs of it. Good luck in starting your family and keep your fingers crossed that none of your children wind up with clefts. Jeff Alterman at alterman@bestweb.net

[Calvero]

I'm the oldest of four and I'm the only one that was cleft affected, and I have one daughter non-cleft. I have no known family history of cleft relatives. We think that I was born cleft due to not enough folic acid when my mom was pregnant with me (they didn't know much about folic acid's importance back in the early 70s).


I would suggest seeing a genetic counselor (since you have brothers who also are cleft) and also visit your wife's ob/gyn. One thing my ob/gyn told me in the beginning was take the right amount of folic acid during the pregnancy. The best time to take it is before your wife is pregnant because the cleft lip and palate are formed in the early stages of pregnancy (somewhere between the 5th and 8th weeks). Taking folic acid reduces the chances of birth conditions such as cleft lip/palate, spina bifida, and others. But as I meantioned earlier, talk to doctors first.


Kim,
The Cleft Club,
<a href="http://cleftclub.2ya.com">http://cleftclub.2ya.com</a>

[Richard A. Spritz, M.D.]

Martin,


The advice you were given to contact a genetic counselor is right on target. If you contact me directly I'd be happy to try to help you. We have done a considerable amount of study of the genetics of CL/P.


Sincerely,


Richard A. Spritz, M.D.
Professor and Director,
Human Medical Genetics Program
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
4200 E. Ninth Ave., B161
Denver, CO 80262 USA


Tel. 303-315-0409
FAX 303-315-0407
Email richard.spritz@uchsc.edu

[Jeff Alterman]

Your advice in telling Martin to see a genetic counselor is absolutely correct. Even though Martin knows of no one else in his family that has a cleft, it is entirely possible that some person from a distant generation had a cleft and it was passed on to his generation. I too have a cleft myself but it is rather minor and I never needed surgery for it. The extent of my own cleft is just a submucous cleft hard palate with an intact soft palate and a tiny harelip affecting only the red area of my upper lip on the right side. My speech is only slightly affected from my minor cleft. The worst thing is that I'm sometimes in pain from the cleft palate since the cleft which is concealed is so narrow that both halves of the hard palate almost touch. The right side of my hard palate is very slightly lower than the left side of the hard palate. Believe it or it, I have no knowledge of anyone in my family who had a cleft unless there is some long lost ancestor who had a cleft and is unbeknownst to me. Jeff Alterman at alterman@bestweb.net

[Pennie]

Martin my brother's daughter was also born with a cleft lip his wife also had their second daughter has not got one but apparently it is hereditory and there may be a small chance of a child of yours having one. I am currently at college studying for a nursing degree do a research project on people's attitudes towards cleft lips and i would be very gratful for any input you and your family can give me on how or whether peple treated you any different. Wishing you and your wife every success in trying for a baby. Pennie