Hi hun, please come and join us on this very friendly forum for parents with cleft affected children: http://www.faceforward.org.uk/forums/parent/index.php

You'll find lots of very friendly advice and people who will understand your feelings and worries. My daughter was born with a cleft of the palate only.  She's had her op at the age of 10 months.

cheers for the replies

We are having the ops done in Oxford JR hospital. Well, i'm 34+5 weeks now and she has decided to go breech, so looks like a section for me..at least we get to meet her earlier

the funny looks and comments was also one of the things I thought I would have trouble with. all the way through my pregnancy I did worry about new people seeing her because you can almost hear what they are thinking and for a few weeks after she was born when anyone looked in the pram MY first comment was she has a cleft lip. I soon realised that if anyone had anthing to say then they would ask. It is true that someone always knows a person with a cleft.

for me I really did not enjoy the rest of my pregnancy (which I really regret now) but once she was born I looked past the cleft and saw just how beautiful she was and is. Surgery was hard but it needs to be done - we said that if we had the choice we would leave it till a little later but once you see your baby after surgery then you no you have made the right choice.

where are you having surgery? ours was at Queens medical centre in nottingham we live in sheffield but had to travel down. Emily (our daughter) is still having a few problems with food coming down her nose due to the hole still being in her gum so we are back at clinic soon for a feeding plate.

when I had emily I did breast feed because her palate was ok but she was losing weight very quickly for other reasons so she was put on high calorie milk. I could of expressed my milk but I had older children and I knew that it would of been impossible for me. if you want to ask me anything no matter how silly you think it might be then please ask. enjoy the rest of your pregnancy  x x

Hello - just to give you a bit of reassurance about the operation - my wee boy was born with spina bifida and had to have a lesion on his back closed at five days old. It was hard handing him over for surgery, but the advantage of having it so young is that they'll remember nothing. Our lo really wasn't bothered at all - had a huge feed and a nice long sleep after he came out. Also - because they are so young, their skin heals amazingly well. We were comforted by knowing that the team who carried out the op were dedicated experts who had done loads of that type of op - and I'm sure the same will be true of your lo's team. Good luck! x

thanks for your reply. Our baby got diagnosed at our 20 week scan..i'm now 32 weeks so it won't be long now. We seem to have dealt with it quite well, and know what to expect..everyone has said feeding is the hardest part.

Slightly worried about the operationss, as they are so young babies to have surgery. Also hubby is worried about people making funny comments about the way she looks, and he will end up wanting to lamp them one...

Our hospital have been really helpful so far. We are not definate about the palate but know she definatly has bilateral cleft lip, and also saw it on a 4d scan.

hi, I had a little girl in nov and we found out at the 20 week scan she had a cleft lip and palate. However when she was born she only had a cleft of the lip and gum. She had surgery in feb but she is still having a few problems with food coming down her nose due to the hole in her gum. I worried the whole time I was pregnant - how I would feel about seeing her how would the older children react but I had a really bad time delivering her and we both could have died - she tried coming out with her foot above her head. The older children just took to her straight away without any worry. She is now 6 1/2 months and looks amazing. Feel free to ask anything x x

Hi

I was wondering if anyone was pregnant or had a child diagnosed with cl+p