Pre-examination methods for pediatric cerebral palsy and how to treat it

  For many parents, having a naughty and active baby at home is a headache, and sometimes they even want their baby to behave and not move. However, please note that some babies who are extremely “immobile” may have cerebral palsy. This is not an alarmist statement, because for children with cerebral palsy, delayed motor development and reduced active movement is one of the symptoms.  Early detection and treatment of pediatric cerebral palsy can help the patient’s future self-care, especially if detected within the age of zero will be directly related to the child’s future functional rehabilitation. Experts at the cerebral palsy treatment center say that we can use the following diagnostic methods to help early diagnosis of cerebral palsy so that early treatment can be carried out.  1. Asking medical history mainly focuses on the high-risk factors of cerebral palsy.       Whether there is any history of neurological genetic disease in the child’s family, whether the parents are consanguineous; whether the child’s mother had hypertension, diabetes, anemia and other diseases during pregnancy, whether she was exposed to radioactive substances, whether she had intrauterine infection; whether the baby was born with asphyxia, birth injury, convulsion, whether it was premature, twin or multiple births, whether it had hyperbilirubinemia or serious infectious diseases after birth, etc.  2.Observation of the early clinical manifestations of the child commonly include the following points: 1) feeding difficulties, uncoordinated sucking and swallowing movements.  2)Irritability, easily startled and irritated.  (3) Poor response to the surrounding environment.  4) Gaze and strabismus.  5) Unstable head, little movement of the limbs, softness of the torso and limbs.  6) Open mouth and tongue, body stiffness, jerking, uncoordinated and asymmetrical movements.  (7) Delayed motor development, at least 3 months behind compared with normal children.  3, physical examination 1) primitive reflexes: hand grasp reflex, tense vagal reflex still exist after 4 months of life, while the sucking reflex, tense neck reflex does not disappear after 6 months of life .  (2) Abnormal VOjta postural reflex.  (3) Muscle tone examination: the child’s muscle tone may be too high, low or wobbly.  4) Combined with relevant physical examinations, such as EEG, topography, neural evoked potentials, brain ultrasound, cranial CT and MRI. VOjta postural reflex examination is suitable for the early diagnosis of cerebral palsy in children with brain injury between 4 and 6 months of age. The early diagnosis of cerebral palsy can be made when two to three of the seven postural reflexes are abnormal.  Secondly, the Vojta postural reflex cannot determine central motor disorders alone. In actual cerebral palsy examinations, children with mental retardation and other types of brain injury may also have abnormal postural reflexes. It is necessary to evaluate early infant motor disorders in combination with the primitive reflex, upright reflex, balance reflex and muscle tone examination. The combination of postural reflex-based infant neurodevelopmental tests and median nerve somatosensory evoked potential tests can improve the prediction of motor impairment in children with brain injury and improve the accuracy of early diagnosis of cerebral palsy.  Rehabilitation should be started as soon as a child with cerebral palsy is diagnosed. Starting early can increase joint flexibility, prevent muscle atrophy, joint stiffness and secondary joint deformities, and early functional exercise can stimulate the cerebral cortex and promote the development of the motor center and intelligence, which can develop the patient’s motor potential to a large extent. It is also important to note that post-operative rehabilitation of cerebral palsy should be carried out regularly and quantitatively every day, and must follow the principle of gradual progress. Rehabilitation is an important aspect of the entire rehabilitation process for children with cerebral palsy and will be carried out throughout. Since each child with cerebral palsy has different motor impairments and potential abilities, the rehabilitator and parents should develop a training plan that is individualized and not one-size-fits-all. When a child with cerebral palsy does not complete the training program as planned, we should examine the reasons and redesign a more suitable training program for him/her.