Babies with Cleft Lip: Normal Adulthood Likely

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Sept. 27, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Cleft lip is a relatively common birth defect that can be surgically repaired, and new research suggests that parents don't have to worry about long-term health problems for these children.

But the same may not hold true for cleft palate, the Norwegian researchers said.

A cleft lip occurs if the tissue that makes up the lip doesn't join completely before birth, leading to an opening in the upper lip. A cleft palate occurs when the tissue at the roof of the mouth doesn't fuse completely during pregnancy.

The researchers found that babies born with cleft lip, with or without cleft palate, had no greater risk for health problems and death than those born without clefts.

But they found that infants born with cleft palate alone had a slightly increased risk of dying early and of having conditions such as intellectual disability, autism and severe learning disabilities.

"These results are relatively good news for parents of children with cleft lip and cleft palate," said lead researcher Dr. Erik Berg, who's with the University of Bergen.

One of the limitations of the study was that the number of people with a cleft palate who died early or had developmental problems was so small that it's impossible to assign the extent of the risk for any one outcome, Berg noted. Only an association was seen between cleft palate and risk of future problems.

He said that because cleft lip is easier to identify with an ultrasound before birth and a cleft palate usually can't be seen before delivery, these "findings could be relevant for future counseling of parents who are concerned about the health of their fetus if a cleft lip is detected during pregnancy."

For the study, Berg and his colleagues collected data on about 1.5 million births in Norway between 1967 and 1992. The study included more than 2,000 babies born with oral clefts who were followed until 2010, when they were between the ages of 18 and 43.

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