Cerebral Palsy in Children

Cerebral Palsy in Children

Parents dread the day that they will hear about their children’s sufferings due to a disease condition. Like for those who have experiences with cerebral palsy in children. This condition is hard to understand or accept for most parents.

To be able to accept cerebral palsy, one must know what it is about. This is actually a group of neurologic conditions. All of them are characterized by palsies, thus the name. Cerebral palsy in children happens because the condition usually appears and makes its self known after a few months of life or after a few years.

There are different types of cerebral palsy. First is called the spastic type. This will include those conditions that are characterized by stiffening of the muscles. The movements are jerky and are difficult to do. Usually, it will affect one side of the body or the whole of it. The different parts of the body that it can be seen in include the arms, legs, even the tongue and the cheek muscles. This is the most common type.

The second type called athetoid CP has movements that are slow. These are also uncontrolled and can affect the whole body. The third type is called ataxic. This is the most uncommon of the three and it can cause difficulty in maintaining balance and coordination in a child who has it.

There may also be cases when the condition is a mixture of two of the three cases. Or, even for extreme situations, the child may have the three types present.

There are different causes of CP. Most of them are related to brain damage. This damage can occur in three different situations and can be caused by any physical trauma or injury to the child’s brain. Imbalances in the levels of neurotransmitters do not affect this neurologic disease. During the prenatal stages of a child’s life, the child himself or the mother has had certain conditions that can affect the development of the baby. During birth, the most common cause can be due to improper handling during the delivery process. Asphyxia or reduced oxygen delivered to the baby during delivery can also be a cause. Lastly, after the child was born, conditions like viral meningitis can get complicated and lead to cerebral palsy.

The most common symptoms that you will see with cerebral palsy in children can be of different things and of different extent.

In the early stages, you might only notice that the child is restless and cannot seem to stay in one place. Next, the child, at an age that he or she is supposed to be able to walk, will not be able to do so. Cerebral palsy in children will also cause developmental delays related to speech and even physical development.

Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy

Disease conditions that can be devastating are those that are under the groups of neurological disorders. And one of these diseases is cerebral palsy.

This is a condition that is seen as early as when a person is just a few months old to the time when he is a few years old. The body movements of children who have cerebral palsy are uncoordinated. This manifestation is bound to increase or worsen after some time.

A misconception about this is that the uncoordinated muscle movements are not related to problems with your nerves or your muscles. Rather, there are problems in the brain. There are certain parts of the brain which has a main function of controlling movement. So when there is a problem with this part, the body’s movements become haywire and are no longer within what can be considered normal.

In order to see if a child has cerebral palsy or not, the movements during playtime are observed. There should be smooth movements. Some children may still have a problem with coordination. The normal problems are those involved in handling and doing smooth motor movements. But, when there are extremes in the awkward movements, an abnormality is considered. Even if this is the only sign that you see, you should consider getting the advice of a specialist.

Aside from the actions, the child’s reflexes can be exaggerated. This is due to the stiffening of the muscles. There may be abnormalities or changes in the gait or the way the child walks. Either the movements looked to stiff or too relaxed. Those are signs that the muscle tone is already affected.

The possible causes of these conditions are several. One of the most common can be those that have resulted from physical injury to the brain of a child. This is due to cerebral infections caused by bacterial and viral agents.

Even injuries due to accidents or falls during the early years of the child can lead to damage to the brain and cause consequent effects that will further result to palsy.

The treatments are simply focused on increasing comfort, preventing further damage and malfunction, and develop skills to be able to be ass functional as possible. It can be very difficult to make a person who has this disease to do things on his or her own. However, there are cases which are not too serious and their conditions can be managed.

In preparation for an adult life of maturity and responsibility, a child with this condition should continue to grow and develop to be able to live life as normal as possible. It might be a condition that cannot be cured but, there are a lot of things that parents or caregivers can do to help people with cerebral palsy.