Ear problems and children with cleft lips and palates

Our youngest son Preston was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. What this means in simple terms is he had a double cleft lip and his hard and soft palate were perforated. Where his philtral dimple, the small indention under your nose, is supposed to be did not come together thus causing his bilateral cleft lip and palate.

At his age of two he really does not know about his condition, what he does know is that his ears bother him all of the time. For Preston his ear canal was malformed as a result of the other facial issues. Most ear canals have a gentle curve. Preston's are shaped more like a corkscrew, thus causing his ears to retain fluid.

We have already had one set of ear tubes surgically inserted and now must do this again on the 7th of September 2007. With the other surgeries that he has upcoming we cannot allow an ear infection to slow down his progress.

Almost all children experience ear infections. Inner ear infections cause pus to build up behind the ear drum. Many times the ear drum will burst and relieve the child of pain. This is not something to be alarmed about as the ear drum usually heals by itself.

Statistic say that 4 out of 5 children will experience ear infections. If your child has a cleft palate that number goes to 99 out of 100.

Some common symptoms of ear infections:

• Hearing loss - Sound does not travel well through fluids
• Earache
• Fever
• Headache
• Difficulties sleeping
• Loss of appetite
• Discharge from the ear

So if you are concerned with ear infection associated with a cleft baby remember that children with out a cleft also have ear infections too. Treatment can be accomplished usually with antibiotics or tubes. Putting tubes in a child's ear is a relatively minor procedure and is usually done on an out patient basis. In the hospital in the morning and out for lunch. There are usually no restrictions after this procedure. The first time Preston had it done he was playing and ready to go after he woke from the anesthesia.

It is important for all children to have healthy infection free ears, but children that must have intensive repair surgeries it is even more important to keep them infection free.

Nothing is more disheartening to find out that you child may not be able to have a major procedure due to the fact that they have an inner ear infection. This is avoidable and you need to develop a good relationship with your pediatrician and ENT to keep their ears healthy.

Your pediatrician probably already spends a lot of time looking in your child's ear. So do not fret it if you are referred to an ENT. This is normal even for children born without a wide smile.