The harelip is a congenital defect of the structures that form the mouth. It is a crack or separation in the lip and/or in the palate, like result of that two sides of the top lip did not grow simultaneously.

The cracked palate is a crack or opening in the top palate.

The harelip and the cracked palate can appear simultaneously but also can happen separately. The opening in the lip or the palate can be unilateral or bilateral.

It is one of the most common congenital defects. It affects one of the 700-750 newborn babies. 25 % of these children suffers from cracked palate, 25 % of harelip and 50 % of both.

The mouth of the fetus forms during the first three months of the pregnancy. During this time, the parts of the top palate and the top lip normally join. When this union does not happen, the child has a harelip and/or a cracked palate.
It happens especially in families with a record of this abnormality in a father, in another child or an immediate relative. But also it can happen in families without the already mentioned precedents.

One believes that there are some factors in the ambience that react with certain specific genes and interfere with the normal process of the closing of the palate and the development of the lip: some medicines, drugs, chemicals, lead, shortcomings of vitamins...

1. Medical group: A group of specialists with experience in the treatment of these children is essential, working as a whole to design the best program of surgery and treatment for every defect in particular.
2. Surgery: The lip and/or the affected palate can still be repaired by means of surgery at early age, before the child is three months of age. These operations are carried out in accordance with the weight, the general health of the child and the severity of the crack. They can be carried out by stages or in only one intervention. Later, when the child grows, additional surgery can be practised to correct some defects of the lip, the nose, the gums, and/or the palate.
3. Feeding: These babies can have serious problems for the breast or artificial feeding. There have been designed special devices that mothers allow to these children to suck of his or of a feeding-bottle. On the other hand, these children consume a lot of air, and it is necessary to help them to eliminate the gases often. To feed this way a baby takes a lot of time at first, but it becomes easier when the parents learn to satisfy the needs of his child.
4. Problems of the ear: The children with this illness usually suffer from more infections of the ear, due to the incomplete development of the palate and of the palatine muscles, which are necessary to open Eustaquio's horns (that are to every side of the gullet and drive to the average ear). The children with harelip must be under constant supervision of a specialist in gullet, nose and ear (otorrinolaringólogo or ORL, to be quick), to avoid permanent damages to the ear due to chronic infections.
5. The speech and the language: The loss of the audition can cause problems of learning as for the development of the speech. The child conpaladar cracked has to be examined at early age to practise reconstructive surgery on him. The voice of these has a nasal quality but after the surgery he can surrender to a therapy for:

• the language development;
• the joint (correct pronunciation of vowels and consonants);
• the resonance balance (quality of the tone of voice).

6. Odontology: The children with harelip and/or cracked palate must take an odonto-pediatrician as soon as possible to make sure that the jaws of the child are of th