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Our Kids - Meet Adam

Adam was born in Vancouver in 1993 with a cleft lip and palate, a common birth anomaly that occurs approximately one in 700 births.

Adam

Adam, Cleft Palate

A cleft lip is a condition that creates an opening in the upper lip. A cleft palate occurs when there is an opening in the roof of the mouth. Cleft lip and cleft palate can occur separately or together. In Adam’s case, they occurred together, making it very challenging for his mom to feed him.

Without a palate, a baby has trouble sucking or breastfeeding. An older child has trouble eating and pronouncing certain letters, and often the upper front teeth don’t have enough bone to form properly. The condition is also disfiguring. It can be corrected surgically, but it often requires several subsequent surgeries as the child grows.

When Adam was first born, his mother, Sydney was frustrated by the lack of information about how to feed Adam. She felt that there was not enough information to help her deal with Adam’s cleft lip and palate. There also weren’t enough resources to help her care for him. Faced with so much ignorance, Sydney started to give radio and newspaper interviews about her son’s condition and started the B.C. Cleft Palate Craniofacial Foundation.

Since moving to Toronto, Sydney has joined SickKids’ Family Advisory Committee, a group of parents and grandparents of SickKids patients who are dedicated to improving family-centred care.

Corrective surgeries make the mouth fully functional, and procedures usually begin almost at birth and continue until the face stops growing at 17 years. Adam has had 12 operations, the majority at SickKids. SickKids has the largest Cleft Lip and Palate program in Canada, with 3,500 patients in active treatment.

Each year, an additional 175 children enter the program. Adam will have additional surgery and will be treated at SickKids until he is 18 years old.

HOW CAN YOU HELP? Thousands of children like Adam need your support.