Evaluation of nutritional status of children with cleft lip-palate

Abstract

Evaluation of nutritional status of infants with cleft lip-palate. Introduction: Children with cleft lip-palate have more feeding difficulties than normal children. These difficulties are more frequent and more severe when cleft palate is present, mainly in infants and small children. This condition is directly associated with difficulties in breast feeding. In general, primary surgeries (queiloplasty and palatoplasty) are performed during the first two years of life, being the nutritional status an important factor for clinical recovery after surgery. Objectives: The present project has two objectives: 1) to evaluate the nutritional status of children with cleft lip and/or cleft palate without other associated malformations or syndromes, with less than 2 years of age, who were not submitted to palatoplasty; 2) to compare the nutritional status of a group of infants with cleft lip and /or cleft palate, with less than 6 month of age, receiving exclusively breast feeding, with other group of infants with the same type of cleft in the same age range, receiving formula milk. Methods: Measurements of weight and length will be collected from 200 children assisted at HRAC-USP, without other associated malformations or syndromes and previous palatoplasty, in a cross-sectional study. Values from National Center for Health Statistics de 2000 (NCHS2000) will be used as reference for weight for age (W/A), length for age (L/A) and body mass index (BMI).