We went to the ENT this morning at Texas Children’s in Clear Lake. (I thought I would never be back to that town for doctor’s appointments, but I was wrong). As it turns out the doctor looked at s mouth and nose and ears and all she spotted was a “bifid uvula” she said this is associated with cleft palate often times, but he did not have a cleft in his palate, but his palate was soft and our next step would be to see a speech therapist and have a swallow study done.
As it turns out I am on my A-game and already have referrals in for a speech therapist and a swallow study. In addition to she said we should defiantly get with a clinical feeding team (also waiting on a follow up phone call) and they should certainly be able to help Reece. His problem seems to be associated with his prematurity and a lack of maturity amongst his mouth. Basically the doctor said this is seen among premature infants and is something you can work to improve with therapy, but typically it takes a lot of time.(however I read online that only 1% of Caucasians have it) Later we might see possible effects being inner ear infections and delayed speech, but again that is something that only time can and will tell. The good news is there shouldn’t be a surgery involved unless something else were to pop up.
I googled “bifid uvula” and heres a few sites that I found interesting that you might want to read to understand it a little better….
Wikipedia: Bifid uvula
A bifid or cleft uvula.
The bifid uvula of a 24 year old woman.A bifid uvula is a split or cleft uvula. Newborns with cleft palate also have a split uvula. The bifid uvula results from failure of complete fusion of the medial nasal and maxillary processes. Bifid uvulas have less muscle in them than a normal uvula, this may cause recurring problems with middle ear infections. While swallowing, the soft palate is pushed backwards. This prevents food and drink from entering the nasal cavity; if the soft palate cannot touch the back of the throat while swallowing, food and drink can enter the nasal cavity.[6] Splitting of the uvula occurs infrequently but is the most common form of mouth and nose area cleavage among newborns (roughly 2% of infants have this bifid or split uvula). Bifid uvula occurs in about 1% of Caucasians and 10% of Native Americans.
Statistics have been presented in the New England Journal of Medicine suggesting a correlation between bifid uvula and aortic aneurysm.[7]
http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/forked-bifid-uvula-in-child.html
http://www.speechpathology.com/askexpert/display_question.asp?question_id=277
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