Core Tips: Because of immature brain development, premature babies are prone to diseases such as respiratory distress, hypoxia, intracerebral hemorrhage, and brain tissue damage after birth, which may affect brain development and lead to cerebral palsy. How to prevent cerebral palsy in premature babies? How to take care of children with cerebral palsy? Why premature babies are prone to cerebral palsy? Because premature babies have immature brain development, they are prone to diseases such as respiratory problems, hypoxia, intracerebral hemorrhage, and brain tissue damage after birth. In addition, premature babies are often undernourished, which also affects brain development. The smaller the weight, the higher the chance of cerebral palsy. According to a survey, there are about 3 children with cerebral palsy in 100 premature babies. Early Symptoms of Cerebral Palsy 1. High risk factors for cerebral palsy are found before, during and after birth. For example, infection during pregnancy, rubella, severe hyperemesis gravidarum, asphyxia at birth, prematurity, severe jaundice, intracranial hemorrhage after birth; 2. Difficulty in feeding after birth, such as weakness in sucking, weak or excessive crying, and easy to be frightened; 3. Excessive quietness and little active movement; 4. Backwardness in motor development. For example, 3 months to 4 months old children can’t hold their head up in prone position or can’t hold their head up steadily, can’t support their weight with forearms even at 4 months old, land on their toes when they stand up, or their two lower limbs are too straight or crossed, etc.; 5. Often have abnormal muscle tone and abnormal postures, such as flexion of both hands with inwardly retracted fingers, clenching of fists, inwardly rotating forearms, and tilting of head and neck backward. What should a premature baby do to prevent cerebral palsy Parents follow certain methods of massage and gymnastics for their children at home? Twice a day for 5-15 minutes and intensive active motor training, such as lifting, sitting, turning, sitting, crawling, standing and walking accordingly according to the age of the month, to promote the development of motor tone. In this way, cerebral palsy in preterm infants can be reduced by more than 2/3, and even if cerebral palsy occurs, the menstrual period can be significantly reduced. 0-2 months: Prone head-up. When the preterm infant reaches 4 weeks, start prone practice, 1 hour before breastfeeding, when waking up on an empty stomach, prone position with language and toys to guide the child to raise his head. Each training 10 minutes, 4-6 times a day. Mother and child face-to-face training method. The child lies prone on the mother, and the mother can talk to the child to encourage the child to raise his head. Side-lying symmetrical posture. The child lies on his side with both upper limbs and hands in a neutral position on the trunk. This position controls abnormal asymmetric postures and abnormal extensor muscle tension. 3-4 months Prone head-up training. Continue to have the pediatrician perform prone head-up training. Rolling over. Use toys to induce the child to roll over. When helping the child to roll over, hold the child’s hand with one hand and gently roll over to the opposite side with the other hand on the shoulder, at least 7-8 times a day. Balance training. Place the child in the supine position on a sheet, and two parents grab the ends of the sheet and swing it from side to side. 2-4 times a day. Hand-mouth coordination training. Supine position, let the child grasp both hands and feet to the mouth, practice hand-mouth-eye coordination. Grasp training. Place the toy in the center line position, and induce the child’s upper limbs to extend forward and separate the fingers for grasping. Perform 7-8 times a day. 5-6 months Sitting training. Children sit with both lower limbs apart, trunk leaning forward and both upper limbs supported in front of the child, or practice sitting against the seat. Practice 5-6 times daily for 10 minutes each time. Crawling. Parents can tease with toys in front of the child, the back against the soles of the child’s feet to help move forward. Practice 7-8 times a day for 5-10 minutes each time. Active grasping training. Children sitting position, the toy will be placed in front of the body near and far different positions, let the child practice from near and far, high and low different places to reach the toy. Practice 5-6 times a day. 10 minutes each time. 7-8 months Crawl on hands and knees. Crawl with hand-knee support. Requires 50-100 meters of crawling per day. Picking up movement training. Hold the child’s knees in an upright position to prevent knee flexion, place a toy in front of the child and let him/her practice bending over to pick it up. Bend from high to low. From easy to difficult. Practice this movement 2-4 times a day, 10-30 pieces each time. Squeeze and pick up with both hands. When the child is able to use his thumb at about 7 months of age, he can be given some small toys to practice using his fingers, so that the child can go from grasping with a large hand to pinching with the thumb together with other fingers for fine movements. 9-12 months Help standing, squatting, standing alone and walking alone practice. Daily care of cerebral palsy of prematurity The ultimate goal of daily conditioning of cerebral palsy of prematurity is to maximize the recovery or compensation of the survival functions of children with cerebral palsy of prematurity, rebuild some of the limbs’ functions, reduce the degree of their disability, and improve the quality of their survival; in order to relieve or reduce the burden of their families and the society. In order to do a good job in the daily care of cerebral palsy in preterm infants, you need to pay attention to the following principles of care: Indoor environment: keep the indoor air fresh, sunny, well ventilated and at a suitable temperature. Regular disinfection with ultraviolet light and frequent mopping of the floor with disinfectant to ensure the cleanliness and hygiene of the indoor environment of children with cerebral palsy. Attention to safety: Children with cerebral palsy have developmental delay, and the development of all kinds of movements is later than that of healthy children at the same time, so they are not able to move easily. Therefore, they should be guarded by specialized personnel. Pay attention to safety to avoid accidental injury. Cleanliness and hygiene: Improve the cleanliness and hygiene of children with cerebral palsy, take bath regularly, and change clothes, bed sheets and bedding in time. Daily care of cerebral palsy requires extra cleanliness, which parents should not neglect. Dietary care: Children should be provided with high-calorie, high-protein, vitamin-rich and easy-to-digest food. Children who have difficulty in eating independently should be given dietary training. When feeding, the spoon should not be withdrawn when the child’s teeth are clenched to prevent damage to the teeth. When feeding, the child’s head should be kept in the midline position, and the child’s head tilted back to eat may lead to foreign body inhalation. The child should be allowed to learn how to eat and be removed from the feeding situation as soon as possible. Nasal feeding can be used if the child cannot keep the calories in his/her mouth. Skin care: Children with cerebral palsy who are severely ill and cannot remain seated are often bedridden for long periods of time. Side-lying position is suitable for all types of cerebral palsy, and caregivers often help children to turn over and minimize the time spent in bed during the day. The nursing staff often help the children to turn over and minimize the bedtime during the day. The children should be cleaned up in time and the skin should be kept clean to prevent bedsores or other infections. Functional training: The brain lesions of paralyzed children are static, but the resulting neurological deficits are not fixed forever. Without early and appropriate treatment, abnormal postures and movement patterns will become fixed, as well as causing tendon contractures, bone and joint deformities, which in turn aggravate mental retardation. Infants and young children have a high degree of brain tissue plasticity and compensatory capacity, which can be optimized if appropriate rehabilitation measures are taken. The paralyzed limbs should be kept in the functional position, and passive or active movement should be carried out to promote muscle and joint movement and improve muscle tone. Tui na, massage, acupuncture and physiotherapy can also be used. Surgical orthopedics can be considered after 5 years of age for severe limb deformities. For children with speech disorders, training should be carried out according to the law of normal children’s language development, especially 0-6 years old is the key period for learning language, usually give children rich language stimulation, encourage children to vocalize, correct vocal abnormalities, and persistently carry out language training, in order to enhance children’s adaptive power to social life.