Snot coming out of a five-month-old baby's nose is not normally something mums cheer about.

But for Landsborough mum Charlotte Halliday seeing her little boy Charlie sneeze for the first time this week was nothing short of a wonder.

Charlie was born with a severe cleft lip and palate.

He could not eat, he could not smile properly and until he had surgery last week, he could not sneeze.

Charlie had bruising after the surgery for the severe case of cleft lip and palate. ( Facebook: Charlotte Halliday )

Ms Halliday had no idea she would be giving birth to a child with a severe facial disfiguration that would cause him to spend most of his first five months of life in hospital.

She had a textbook pregnancy and 3D images of her baby growing in her belly showed a perfect little boy.

But when he was born on April 18 at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital, there was silence in the delivery room as her first child was placed on her chest.

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"He was put straight on my chest and the room had gone silent," Ms Halliday said.

"I knew something was wrong, I didn't know what. The midwives weren't saying anything."

Her mum told her they were pretty sure her son had a cleft lip.

It was not something Ms Halliday had expected.

"I didn't know how to take it. My partner broke down," she said.

Her beautiful baby was taken off for an assessment while it was explained to her that their little boy, named Charlie, had a severe cleft lip and a cleft palate.

Receiving the news was not easy.

"It is so hard, if you have had this textbook birth to 'where's my baby gone?'"

Charlie spent the first few months of his life in and out of hospital as he struggled with feeding and his health was not good.

Ms Halliday was initially not sure how to show the world her newborn baby.

"Everyone finds it normal to take their baby out," she said

"I didn't know at first how to explain it, or I was scared of people asking me."

But instead of hiding her little boy from the world, she decided to share his journey with others, creating his own Facebook page, Charlie's Journey.

Charlie (centre), with his friends, will be taught to be proud of his cleft palate. ( Facebook: Charlotte Halliday )

Already it has more than 2,000 followers.

She also entered Charlie in a Babyvote's Cutest Baby for May competition.

"Now if anyone says anything I say he was born with cleft lip and palate and then he gets the usual 'oh he is beautiful'.

"No-one has said anything rude or mean, I have had such a great positive outlook on that."

3D scanning failed to pick up the condition, which affects one in 700 babies. ( Facebook: Charlotte Halliday )

Charlie has many, many surgeries ahead of him, including one when he is around nine which will take bone from his hip to be used in his palate.

But his mum is going to make him proud of his journey.

"I'm going to teach him to tell everyone that everyone is different, no-one is the same," she said.

"I'm going to teach him to be proud.

"One day he can show his scars to his friends."

One in 700 children are born with a cleft lip and palate in Australia, with some not picked up until they are a few months old.