This handsome boy is seen after initial repair of his unilateral cleft lip.

The scar is more likely to be thicker and/or darker early on for patients of certain ethnicities (African-American, Hispanic, Asian), but does soften and fade with time and scar care.

The first year often includes:
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– Prenatal visits for when the cleft is seen on ultrasound, to talk about expectations and timing. Most children have otherwise very normal childhoods and lives! Almost all clefts we see are random, and not caused by anything that the mother or father did during pregnancy.
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– Day 1 working with our speech therapist @monicakemp and the team at the hospital where you deliver, to immediately get on track with feeding and weight gain.
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– Cleft lip repair between 3 and 6 months.
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– Cleft palate repair between 9 and 12 months. That seems to be the best balance between waiting for the child to grow as much as possible, and before speech begins taking off.