Diagnostic criteria for cerebral palsy

  Cerebral palsy in children is a type of disease that affects infants and children today. Usually, many children delay the best time frame for treatment and end up becoming disabled children with intellectual disabilities. The main reason for this is that parents cannot identify the symptoms of cerebral palsy early enough to treat the child in time, resulting in the child becoming disabled. So how should we teach parents to identify their children with cerebral palsy so that the number of children with cerebral palsy will not increase?  First, let’s understand the clinical symptoms of cerebral palsy in children: there are various clinical manifestations of cerebral palsy, and because the causes of cerebral palsy in children are different and the damaged areas are different, the symptoms of cerebral palsy vary from child to child at different times. Although the clinical symptoms are complex, children with cerebral palsy generally have some of the following manifestations: 1. Motor disorders: They are characterized by backward motor development, such as head lifting, rolling over, sitting and standing, and backward motor development of the limbs. The child may have difficulties in voluntary movement, stiffness, uncoordinated movements, poor balance, asymmetry, abnormal motor postures or abnormal reactions and involuntary movements.  2, abnormal muscle tone: manifested as increased muscle tone, low or variable high and low. There are often abnormal postural reflexes. 3. Mixed symptoms: Children with cerebral palsy often have other disorders at the same time, such as mental retardation, behavioral and visual-auditory disorders.  How to identify children with cerebral palsy through routine diagnosis: 1. Grasping response: Keep the infant in supine or sitting position, the examiner will put the index finger or small stick into the child’s hand from the ulnar side of the palm and press the palm, the normal situation will show that the child’s fingers are rapidly flexed and clenched. Normal children are gradually replaced by conscious grasping movements 3-4 months after birth.  2. Cross-extension reaction: During the examination, the child is placed in a supine position with the head placed correctly, the examiner straightens the lower limb with one hand and presses or taps the sole of the side with the other hand. The normal situation will show that the other side of the lower limb is first flexed, inward, and then extended. This will occur in normal infants within 2 months.  3, support response: hold the child’s armpits to make the child in an upright position, feet on the table. The normal situation will show that the lower limbs are flexed first and then extended. Normal infants will appear within 2 months and disappear after 4 months.  4. Pulling sitting response: The examiner places the child in a supine position with the head in the center, holds the child’s wrists on both sides with both hands, and slowly pulls him into a sitting position. After 3 months of age, the infant’s head is raised in the same plane as the trunk when pulled to sitting. After 4 months, the infant can actively flex the neck and raise the head, and has good head alignment ability at 6 months of age.  This is the main way to identify and diagnose the symptoms of cerebral palsy in children and what physical dysfunction the child will have when he/she has cerebral palsy. We hope that parents will keep this in mind. We hope that parents will keep this in mind and monitor their child’s cerebral palsy symptoms in a timely manner and provide timely treatment.