New mom, chances of second child having a cleft?

Kara Michelle - posted on 05/17/2013

I have a 2 year old born with a cleft lip only (bilateral) and spina bifida, and an almost 8 month old with a cleft lip and palate (bilateral) their daddy and his grandfather had the unilateral cleft lip and palate and so did my great uncle. They told me this RARELY happens.

Jessica - posted on 07/15/2009

I just had my second child, my first Hailey was born with a cleft palate and like you we had no idea until after, anyway my son is no 8 weeks old and he did not have any problems, 4% isn't very big. The biggest chance will be your daughters children.

Ashley - posted on 07/09/2009

My son was borth with a cleft lip and palate. There is no known family history ... it was a huge shocker!!! My 3 month old daughter did not have one. And just so you are aware ... when I became pregnant with my daughter I requested that they do a high tech ultrasound to see if there was a cleft. At least that way I would be prepared if there was one!! They did it without hesitation and thankfully, everything was fine.

Abby - posted on 07/08/2009

I was born with a cleft lip and palate, and my daughter (17 months old) was born with just a cleft lip. This baffled the geneticists...they assumed because I had the lip and palate, that was the only way our daughter would be. We knew about the lip, but obvioulsy didn't know if her palate was intact or not until after she was born. I also wonder what our next child's chances will be (same thing, won't change anything, just curious), but since they were wrong about Bayley, I'm not sure it would mean much anyway even if I had a doctor tell me.

Maxine - posted on 06/25/2009

Since my husband has a cleft as well as our first daughter, our chances for our second daughter having a cleft were 18%. And she was born without it.

Robyn - posted on 05/27/2009

Sorry I am posting so late. Congrats on your little girl! But our first (3 years old) was born with a unilateral complete cleft lip/palate & he has a younger brother (17 months) that was born with everything intact, and we are expecting #3 & after the level II u/s everything looks good. Obviously the cleft did not stop us! & then we had a spinal scare with our 2nd after he was born (he is just fine though - just a simple dimple).

We found out at the big u/s with our first - felt very fortunate to be able to prepare ourselves. He is truly an amazing boy! So many people tell me that you can not even tell (surgery has come so far & these people are just that nice!) without me saying anything. It was really hard to go through the lip surgery because his face changed so much. It is weird to say but I mourned the cleft.

My doctor did recommend me taking extra folic acid (3x) in addition to my prenatal with my current & last pregnancy. But honestly we would have gone through it again, as it is hard to say when you have a newborn but in the scheme of things - my son is very healthy & happy! Good luck!

Jane - posted on 05/13/2009

Hi Courtney and congrats on the birth of baby Mya! My daughter Lily is nearly 9 months and was born with exactly the same condition, I actually found out at 30 weeks though by fluke when my obs was doing the weekly ultrasound and was totally shocked as well as we are unaware of any cleft conditions on either side of our families. Since her birth I have been to a geneticist (purely for interest sake for future pregnancies) and as well as going through family history he examined her & also checked whether myself or my partner had lip pits as there are a few associated syndromes that have been linked to clefts, none of us had any of these assocatied syndromes. At that stage we also found out that my sister-in-law's unborn baby had a cleft lip so based on Lily's cleft & the fact that another member of our family had a cleft he gave us 4% to 6% chence of our next baby being born with a cleft which as you said is not a huge concern & certainly won't stop us trying for another as Lily has been an absolute dream & we would love another baby just like her!! He also recommended a daily dose folic acid, I am taking 5gms of Megafol.

Mandy - posted on 05/13/2009

I have 4 kids and only one has a cleft lip/palate. He has a twin sister without and 2 older brothers.

Susan - posted on 05/08/2009

I was told that if I were to have another child to start taking 4mg of Folic Acid a day to help prevent the chances of having another child with a cleft lip/palate like my first daughter. And they did also say that there was only a 4% chance of having another one similar to my first daughter. Elizabeth was born with a unilateral cleft lip and a complete cleft palate that is broken all the way. They said that even if she were to have a child they would have the same 4% chance of having a cleft lip/palate child. So I don't think you should stress it, but still look for it in the ultrasounds. And I too didn't know Elizabeth was to be born being different.

Capri - posted on 05/04/2009

I have a 3 yr who had a unilateral incomplete cleft lip with nasal deformity, cleft alvelolar ridge, 1/3 hard and complete soft palate cleft. Total surprise when he was born. I have a 2 yr old daughter (11months apart), she is fine. She was high risk and we went for a special ultrasound. We were also told we had a 4% chance. Congrats on the new little one!!