How many children with cleft palate

[question everything]

are there in third world?

OK, I admit, I cannot look at these photos that, it appears, are being shoved in my face in every magazine and newspaper that I read (I read the print media).

As I say, I quickly turn the page but I have a feeling that these are the same five faces, or so, that keep appearing on all the ads - the more hideous the better.

What is it about these ads all of a sudden popping everyplace? What, do the magazines and newspaper give them the space for free - and write it off?

Do they think that, hey, we have contributed close to $100 million to Presidential candidates so we can send more money their way?

And, yes, I do donate to charity. Even posted a modest proposal here suggesting to match our political contributions with ones to charity. But I select my charities based on what they do, not based on what hideous images they shove in my face.

[Shine]

1. Smile Train is an incredible organization.

They donate 100% of your donation towards programs to help children with cleft palate. Zero overhead.

:thumbsup:

http://www.smiletrain.org/site/PageServer


They show the pix b/c that stuff exists and it's important to get those kids help. They deserve it!

[Clark2008]

5. My OB/GYN donates time to this organization

He, naturally, works with babies and was gone a week while I was pregnant. In fact, it was my 37th week and I was so afraid my little Hannah was going to come when he was gone. She didn't, though - 39 weeks. :)

[question everything]

10. So how do they pay for the ads?

Glossy full pages every week at Newsweek and Time?

[RedCappedBandit]

12. I agree about Smile Train

My Doctors are part of this organization. They are nothing short of miracle workers.

[donsu]

2. isn't it caused by alcoholism?

or that's one of the causes?

[AngryAmish]

3. I think these kids are too young to drink

[donsu]

7. come on, you know it's the parents

nt

[AngryAmish]

19. I'm just playing

[pop goes the weasel]

13. vitamin deficiency

Cleft palate is in the same league of birth defects as spina bifida and anencephaly. There may be a genetic predisposition, but the most common preventable cause is lack of folic acid in the mother's diet prior to conception and in the early weeks of pregnancy.

So, when you think of how much malnutrition there is in the world, you can readily assume that cleft palate is one of the most widespread birth defects. It can be rather easily repaired but if it isn't, then the child is often faced with grueling hardship.

[RedCappedBandit]

15. My parents weren't alcoholics

nor were they malnourished.

Imagine that.

[pop goes the weasel]

27. not surprised

But folic acid deficiency is still an important preventable cause, and widespread in the very places where charities like Smile Train operate. Then there's just fluke chance, which is what I presume happened in your case? I was just trying to point out that the problem isn't related to parental vice, and is more common among populations with malnutrition, is all.

[applegrove]

4. Babies are always adorable. Even if they have a cleft palate they are still

cute.

[Orrex]

6. How many cleft palates must there be before it's a worthy cause?

I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but at least one of the infomercials I've seen on the subject provides some statistics, and it's a heck of a lot more than the "same five faces."

[Midlodemocrat]

8. It is a worthy cause. One of my clients

Operation Smile does a lot with children with cleft palates.

[Orrex]

22. I agree that it's worthy--absolutely!

Everything I've heard about Operation Smile reveals it to be a remarkable organization doing astonishing, life-altering work.

[question everything]

9. How many sick and homeless and hungry

must there be before it's a worthy cause?

Like most, I live on a budget and have to prioritize my donations. And they go, first, to local organizations that offer shelter and food for the needy.

And then to the local chapter of the Red Cross and Alzheimer's Association and American Cancer Society.

And to the University that gave me a degree that makes it possible for me to donate anything.

And, yes, every December I get mail from every possible charity that wants money. I finally told the Lupus Foundation to stop calling me.

So we each have our priorities. But I don't think that shoving hideous photos in our face is the way to go. Plus, if the newspapers and magazines do not provide the space for free - and I am talking a full page glossy at Newsweek and Time every week - how much of my donation would go to pay for these ads?

[RedCappedBandit]

11. Babies with cleft lip and palate are hideous?

Thanks.

I know that isn't what you meant, but your message isn't coming off too well.

[Orrex]

21. You're missing my point

Your OP was phrased in such a way as to imply that some sort of scheme is afoot to inflate the actual number of children with this condition. That's the point with which I'm taking issue.

Your question about "how many homeless" is valid but irrelevant here, since I said nothing to disparage any other group worthy of aid.

Incidentally, I find your comment about "hideous photos" to be cruelly insensitive.

[RedCappedBandit]

14. One in Three hundred Fifty?

Something around that. What is your problem?

[bobbolink]

16. My goodness.... I don't know if you intended such a harsh-sounding post...

The pain children go through with this is ENORMOUS!

I just met, on Sunday, an Indian child right here in the US who has suffered tremendously. Maybe that doesn't count, as you specified "third world", and only wanted to know how many..

My own uncle suffered from it, and the pain he had as a child was with him his whole life.

Does any of that count?

[question everything]

20. I am sure that they do

but is posting their photos - in glossy full pages ad - the way to do?

How many actually stop and donate and how many - like myself - quickly turn the page?

And how much does it cost to place these ads every week in every weekly (and perhaps in many other magazines?)

I donate to local organizations that feed the hungry and shelter the homeless. I don't need to see their pictures and none are included in the charities' mailing.

I donate to the American Cancer Society and I don't need to see pictures of tumors and of individuals after their surgery and radio therapy.

The charities mean well but their tactics are questionable. In my opinion.

[RedCappedBandit]

24. Their tactics?

You mean, exposing the reality of the situation?

Yes, highly questionable.


:eyes:

What were you thinking when you made this post? Your intentions are the only things which could be properly labeled highly questionable.

[bobbolink]

28. You're free to turn your back on anyone you choose to do so. It's the 'Murkin way.

Whatever.

[AlCzervik]

17. they aren't the same 5 faces. I know someone who does cleft repair surgery

for free, he spends 6 weeks every summer donating his time and services.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

18. this is what you chose to be outraged over? a legitimate charity?

:eyes:

[Bridget Burke]

23. Cleft palate is one problem that can usually be "fixed" by Western medicine.

And the surgery isn't really that expensive or complex. Many of the other problems of the world seem almost endless.

Please--continue donating to the more tasteful charities.

[RedCappedBandit]

25. "The" Surgery..

is only the tip of the iceberg. That isn't to say that even this simplest of procedures doesn't make a huge difference.

[Ilsa]

26. Until it can be fixed, there are frequently enormous feeding difficulties.

Both for breastfeeding and bottlefeeding. Sometimes special nipples are needed. Breastmilk can be comforting from the standpoint that babies are allowed to be fed much closer to surgery time than with formula because the milk digests well.

In some cultures, the child is assumed to be cursed or something very negative when born with a malformity. Blessings on Smile Train and other pediatric humanitarian efforts and their supporters as they strive to improve the quality of life immensely for these kids.

[Laurab]

29. Would you know what cleft palate was, otherwise?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I agree sometimes it is. Many people (including me) go through life not knowing what a baby born with cleft palate looks like. I knew adults who had had it, and you could still kind of tell, but medicine has caught up with it, and it's a beautiful thing.

My ignorance stopped when my step-granddaughter was born with it. She was beautiful, and she was hideous. She had one of the most severe type cases. She's three now, after multiple surgeries when she was a baby, you would never know she had had it. She's just a beautiful little girl.

I admire my stepdaughter for all she did - she was a single mother at the time, she had to do all the special feeding, all the doctor appointments, all the after-surgery care, pretty much by herself, and she did a great job.

It's something that can destroy a child's life, yet is so easy to fix with modern medicine. Doctors don't know what causes it in many, many cases. In her case, it MAY have been genetics on the father's side, but they don't know for sure.

I think you might be an exception, and the pictures DO help. I don't understand why someone would be offended by it. I'm not offended when I see pictures of starving children - it makes me want to help. I haven't seen the cleft palate ads you speak of, but I'm sure I would feel the same way about them.

[SoCalDem]

30. It's one of the most common birth defects

and affects mostly boys (If I recall what a doctor told me many moons ago)

The surgical techniques are so much better than they used to be, but for a middle income family with shitty insurance, even cleft lip/palate can financially ruin a family..

and if the palate if affected, usually years of speech therapy is also needed..

[BlooInBloo]

31. Too many.

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[Hekate]

32. Causes, incidence, and risk factors

It's a devastating cranio-facial birth defect that can condemn a child to a life of social isolation and poverty if she survives infancy. Infant survival is compromised due to inability to nurse properly due to the malformation.

Restorative surgery in developed countries has come light years since I was a kid. Victor, in my 4th grade class in the late 1950s, had a repaired cleft palate. It left him with a swollen looking upper lip, asymmetrical features, and a very evident speech defect. The "After" photos from Smile Train are nothing short of miraculous.

Smile Train is one of those charities, like Surgical Eye Expeditions (SEE), that does a tremendous amount of good in the world.

Hekate

http://www.foxriverwatch.com/cleft_palate_pcbs.html
Cleft Palate and Kidney/Urinary Tract Damage
Could PCB pollution contribute to these birth defects?
Wisconsin has 14.8 cases of cleft palate per 10,000 live births, or
approximately 104 cases a year. Clefting, which involves either the
palate or the lip, occurs at different rates within various ethnic
groups.
Nationally, the incidence is about 1 in 500 among Asians; 1 in 1,000
among whites; and 1 in 2,000 among blacks. Experts at Children’s
Hospital of Wisconsin could not explain why the cleft palate rate was so high in the state.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001051.htm
There are many causes for of cleft lip and palate. Problems with genes passed down from one or both parents, drugs,
viruses, or other toxins can all cause such birth defects. Cleft lip and palate may occur along with other syndromes or
birth defects.
>snip<
Risk factors include a family history of cleft lip or palate and other birth defect. About 1 out of 2,500 people have a cleft
palate.
>snip<

http://www.pcrm.org/magazine/GM98Winter/GM98Win5.html
Cleft palate and cleft lip occur in 0.9 per 1,000 live births in the U.S. ... Studies have suggested that both genetic and environmental factors,including smoking, viruses, fever, and medications, play important roles. Chemical exposures in fathers may play a role, too, either through effects on DNA or because chemicals in the father’s clothing affect the mother. A British study of 14,415 children with birth defects found an increased incidence of cleft palate among children of food processors, metal miners and smelters, painters, and motor vehicle operators.

[entanglement]

33. Nastiest post I've ever read on DU

If the sight of ads featuring sick children offends you, THEN TURN THE FUCKING PAGE. Or get Playboy, where everyone is airbrushed. Or better still, gain an iota of decency and humanity (both of which you lack).