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Autism and cleft lip and palate

jobgro

Hi everyone,

Just wondering if anyone here can relate to something similar.

My son is 17, autistic with ADHD, and was born with a cleft lip and palate. Over the years he’s had quite a lot of medical experiences and it’s left him with a fair amount of medical trauma. It’s something we’re still working through now as he’s getting older.

How common this combination, and are other autistic people who had lots of medical procedures growing up have had similar experiences.

Would be really interested to hear if anyone else relates.

  • There is an association between cleft lip and palate and an increased likelihood of autism and ADHD, but there is no current evidence of causality, either way. Cleft lip and palate has an estimated 20-50% genetic component, while autism has an approximate 80% genetic causation. The overlap appears to be fairly small.

    Medical procedures, given that they involve changes to environment and routine, and increased interactions with strangers (social pressures), will inevitably be more distressing and anxiety-making for an autistic child, or adult, than is the case for most allistics.