

Cleft lip and palate can impact the alignment and development of teeth and jaws. Early intervention by speech therapists and regular monitoring of speech and language development are essential to address any potential communication difficulties. Cleft lip and cleft palate can affect speech production and intelligibility. Ensuring adequate nutrition and addressing feeding challenges are crucial for their growth and development. Infants with cleft lip and cleft palate may have difficulties in breastfeeding or bottle feeding due to structural abnormalities. The following are the nursing priorities for patients with cleft lip and cleft palate:

Nursing goals for clients diagnosed with cleft lip and palate include maintaining adequate nutrition, increasing family coping, reducing the parents’ anxiety and guilt regarding the newborn‘s physical defects, and preparing parents for the future repair of the cleft lip and palate. Initiating Patient Education and Health Teachings Improving Nutritional Status and Teaching Feeding Methods Maintaining Airway Clearance and Preventing Aspiration Management involves a multidisciplinary approach that includes the surgeon, pediatrician, nurse, orthodontist, prosthodontist, otolaryngologist, and speech therapist. The surgical procedures depend on the child’s condition and physician preference. Treatment consists of surgical repair, usually of the lip between 6 to 10 weeks of age, followed by the palate between 12 to 18 months of age. It may occur as a separate anomaly or in conjunction with a cleft lip. The incomplete closure is usually on the midline and may involve the anterior hard palate, the posterior soft palate, or both. Cleft lip deformities can occur unilaterally, bilaterally, or rarely in the midline.Ī cleft palate is an opening of the palate and occurs when the palatal process does not close as usual at approximately weeks 9 to 12 of intrauterine life.

In infants diagnosed with cleft lip, the fusion fails to occur in varying degrees, causing this disorder to range from a small notch in the upper lip to total separation of the lip and facial structures up into the floor of the nose, with even the upper teeth and gingiva absent. These may occur singly or together and often occur with other congenital anomalies such as spina bifida, hydrocephalus, or cardiac defects. A cleft lip and palate is a defect caused by the failure of the soft and bony tissue to fuse in utero.
