Tag Archives: cleft palate

Skinny Babies with Cleft Lips and/or Cleft Palates

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CM McKinney et al. J Pediatr 2023; 255: 181-189. A Cross-Sectional Study of the Nutritional Status of Infants with Orofacial Clefts in the First 6 Months of Life

In this cross sectional study (2010-2022) the authors calculated the proportion of infants (n=883) underweight and wasting with z scores below −2 SDs monthly from birth to 6 months of age at a single tertiary care center. Key findings:

  • Compared with expected proportion of underweight infants (2.3%), a larger proportion of infants with orofacial clefts were underweight between birth and 1 month (10.6%), peaking between 2 and 3 months (27.1%), and remaining high between 5 and 6 months (16.3%). 
  • Compared with the expected proportion of infants with wasting (2.3%), a higher proportion of infants with orofacial clefts experienced wasting between birth and 1 month (7.3%), peaking between 2 and 3 months (12.8%), and remaining high between 5 and 6 months (5.3%).
  • Similar findings were observed for all cleft types and regardless of comorbidities.
  • “The mean prevalence of underweight in our sample exceeded that observed in children in African countries such as Tanzania and Uganda.”

My take: This study shows a high prevalence of underweight and wasting in infants with orofacial clefts.

Lego Art at Tucson Botanical Gardens:

Nutrition Colloquium: Assessing and Nourishing the High-Risk Feeding Patient

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A recent CHOA Nutrition Colloquium provided a lot of useful information regarding speech language assessment, nutrition assessment, and craniofacial team assessment.

Full slide set: Nutrition Colloquium Jan 2018

Here are a few slides –Thanks to Kipp Ellsworth for coordinating these talks and making slides available. The first group of slides explains who and how to evaluate for feeding problems, the next group discusses the specific role of the craniofacial team, and the last group of slides discusses nutritional management.