Is a baby landing on its toes a sign of cerebral palsy?

There are many parents who worry about the possibility of cerebral palsy in their babies because of their toes-to-the-ground behavior. For this reason, they have sought medical treatment everywhere, and some of them have undergone many treatments such as medication and equipment, and suffered from pain. Some of these babies with toe-tapping were born prematurely and some were normal babies. We learned about the pregnancy and delivery history of the mothers of these babies, the growth and development history of the children, and found no abnormality through physical, neuromotor, and intellectual examinations, and after follow-up observation, found that their motor development was normal in the future. Therefore, many babies who land on their toes are normal. So, how to distinguish whether a baby’s toes touching the ground is normal or caused by cerebral palsy? There is a simple way to differentiate, that is, the method of checking the angle of dorsiflexion of the foot, the practice is: hold the baby’s leg straight, so that the dorsum of the foot is flexed to the calf, and press the sole of the foot with the palm of the hand, the angle formed by the dorsum of the foot and the anterior side of the calf is the angle of dorsiflexion of the foot. Note that the baby’s lower limbs should be relaxed during the examination. A doctor has done a study, observed 100 full-term birth of normal children, from 3-4 months to check whether the phenomenon of toe landing, and at the same time check the dorsiflexion angle of the foot, and observe the baby’s motor development. The results were: 23% of the infants were toe-tapping from 4-10 months of age, but all of them had dorsiflexion angles of less than 70 degrees, and all of them had normal motor development. When is cerebral palsy suspected? Cerebral palsy occurs in children with brain damage. Normal babies and most preterm babies do not have brain damage and do not develop cerebral palsy, so there is no need to be nervous about toeing the ground and you can measure the dorsiflexion angle yourself. If a small preterm baby born at less than 32 weeks of age or a baby with other brain injury is suspected of having toe-tapping, it is important to be cautious and to have the baby examined by a pediatric neurologist.