My son, Jude, was born with a bilateral cleft lip, gumline and palate (bclp). This is my rundown, the quick Clift Notes of clefts since most people’s experience with clefts is somewhere alone the lines of “my neighbours cousins baby was born with a cleft”. Yep, I hear that sort of thing a lot.

I seriously could write a whole book on our families experiences with clefts and I’m sure over the next while I’ll keep adding to this story. But for now, here’s what I’ve got.

Clefts are the most common birth “defect” but Jude’s type is a more rare and severe type of orofacial cleft. Basically, when I was about 6-10 weeks pregnant the plates in his face didn’t close properly. The bones can close (or not close) different amounts, leaving different kinds of clefts.

A unilateral cleft means it’s on one side and a bilateral cleft means it’s on both sides. Jude’s cleft is on both sides do its a bilateral.

Jude’s upper gum line is in 3 parts instead of straight across. His upper lip is in 3 parts which sticks out from the base of his nose, resulting in no columella (the piece of flesh separating the nostrils). He also doesn’t have the roof of his mouth or a uvula.

At one week old Jude was fitted for a facial appliance to get him ready for his lip surgery. The nasoalveolar (pronounced nay-zoh-al-VEE-uh-ler) molding or NAM is a non surgical device that helps reshape clefts and can reduce cleft severity and the number of surgeries. This trusty little retainer like thing was amazing! And yet I hated it. Jude hated it. We all hated it.

For more details on orofacial clefts visit The Mayo Clinic, Wikipedia or Kids Health. 

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