What are the common symptoms of pediatric cerebral palsy?

  As a special group, children with cerebral palsy are now receiving more and more attention due to their high incidence and the great trauma they cause to the affected children and their families. At present, there are about 6 million children with cerebral palsy in China, and it is quite unfortunate that many of them are delayed due to the lack of early treatment. In fact, parents can do early detection of the condition from some details of their child’s development, such as late head lifting, inability to crawl, inability to sit, inability to stand, feeding difficulties, and developmental delays, thus laying the foundation for early diagnosis and early treatment.  For most young parents, when they find out that their child cannot sit, stand or chew, most of them will think that their child is weak or developmentally delayed and not take it seriously. Many parents just lack the knowledge about cerebral palsy and do not understand the early manifestations of pediatric cerebral palsy.  So, how can we not delay the early treatment of cerebral palsy patients and not miss the best time for cerebral palsy treatment? As a parent, first of all, we should pay close attention to the following details during the neonatal period after the child is born: 1. Does the baby have difficulty in breastfeeding? If the baby does not suck, suck weakly or refuses to suck, or is fatigued and weak after sucking; 2. if the baby is too quiet, cries little or cries continuously; if the baby has little spontaneous movement, low muscle tone, general flabbiness and weakness; 3. if the baby shows general stiffness, good jerking, has increased muscle tone, often scurries out of the swaddling clothes, head dorsiflexion, sometimes head to the side, both lower limbs are tonic extension 4. whether the baby has abnormal posture, such as upper limbs inward, inward rotation, hand clenching fist, etc.  In addition, early detection of cerebral palsy can also be achieved by going to a professional institution for regular health checkups and doing developmental evaluation tests after the child is born; and as the parents of the child are also able to detect the symptoms of cerebral palsy at an early stage. For infants before the age of half a year, the early symptoms of pediatric cerebral palsy can be identified by checking whether there are the following manifestations at different months of age  1. 3 to 5 months: Inability to do the action of repeatedly playing with hands raised to the eyes.  2. 7 to 8 months: Still cannot sit. The lower limbs are flexed and the knee joints cannot be straightened when the child is held in a sitting position; after being held in a forward leaning position, the child will fall backwards once the adult lets go. When the child is held under the armpit to make him stand upright, the hips and knees are excessively straightened, or even crossed scissor-like.  3.After 7 to 8 months of age: The child does not crawl or crawls only for upper limb activities, and the lower limbs do not have alternating extension and flexion movements.  4. Within 1 year of age: the child does not distinguish between the left and right hands, and will only use one hand to hold things; the face often shows unusual expressions (such as rhythmically spitting out the tongue); the child cannot find the position of the nipple when suckling or has difficulty sucking and swallowing.  In short, once the above abnormalities are detected, parents must be alert and go to a regular hospital for examination. If a child with cerebral palsy can be diagnosed and treated early, for example, 6 months after birth or before 9 months, more than 90% of them can get the ideal treatment effect, and their body functions can be greatly improved and their ability to take care of themselves can be restored; if the treatment is delayed, it may develop into mental retardation, epilepsy and other diseases, which will make the treatment more difficult.  At present, the treatment of cerebral palsy should adopt a multidisciplinary approach. Under the premise of correct diagnosis, active rehabilitation training should be carried out at an early stage, and if the effect is not good or the condition is recurrent, surgery should be carried out in time to release the excessive muscle tone as early as possible, surgically release the spasticity, and carry out the necessary deformity correction. Posterior spinal nerve root selective excision and peripheral nerve selective excision should be performed before other surgeries, and orthopedic surgery should be performed in stages after posterior spinal nerve root selective excision according to the rehabilitation situation. In conclusion, the ideal clinical treatment model for cerebral palsy is rehabilitation training → surgery (e.g., release of limb spasticity) → orthopedic treatment (e.g., corrective treatment for deformities such as scissor gait and clubfoot) → rehabilitation, which is consistent with foreign treatment models and can better ensure the treatment effect.