This sweet girl is seen soon after her palate repair at 9 months of age.

Her primary lip and nose repair were performed earlier, for most patients usually at 3-6 months of age.

The cleft palate is then repaired usually in a single stage at 9-12 months, as babbling begins and speech development starts taking off.

This timing tries to balance scarring (which can restrict growth of the palate and midface), with optimizing speech development.