As a parent, you should first understand the normal growth and development patterns of children at different times, test your child’s motor skills at home frequently, and understand what symptoms are present in pediatric cerebral palsy. In this way, when the child has a problem, it can be detected early and treated early.
1.Neonatal period
The neonatal period is when the baby is born within 28 days. Pediatric cerebral palsy usually has no obvious performance in the neonatal period and is not easily detected. However, if parents pay attention to observe, some signs can still be detected early.
Normal neonatal abilities.
They can look at objects in the awake state and follow the direction of their movement, and are more likely to show interest in brightly colored objects in particular.
Sensitive to light, will close their eyes when encountering bright light stimuli. Hearing is very good, such as a soft call in the ear will turn the head to the direction of the sound, and sometimes also use the eyes to find the source of sound.
The sense of touch is very sensitive, especially around the eyes, mouth, palms, soles and other parts of the feet, the touch will have a response, will appear blinking, open mouth, retract the hands and feet and other actions.
Although movement is mostly unconscious and uncoordinated, newborns are very mobile. When a newborn is picked up at nearly full term, the head can remain in an upright position for a very short time, and if a finger or toy is placed in the palm of the hand, it will be grasped very tightly and not easily released.
After birth, newborns have the ability to interact with the environment and adults, to speak or smile after adults, and to cry to get the attention of adults.
Newborns with cerebral palsy exhibit.
Children with cerebral palsy have a significant lack of the above behavioral abilities, seem to have no interest in everything around them, are very unresponsive, have significantly less movement, and even have poor sucking ability, often choking on milk.
If you ask the doctor to check, you will also find that some innate reflexes such as feeding reflex, holding reflex and hugging reflex are weak or do not appear at all.
Tips.
Parents can often test their baby’s behavioral abilities to see if their responsiveness to their surroundings, motor skills and other aspects are normal, and consult a doctor early if abnormalities are found.
2.Infant period
Infancy refers to the child from birth 28 days to 1 week old. Generally, when the infancy period comes, many symptoms of cerebral palsy show up one after another as the growth and development of the child accelerates. First of all, the most easily found is the backward motor development, and some abnormal postures or movements will also appear, and some children will have backward intellectual development. This is a rough summary of the developmental pattern of motor behavior during infancy.
Normal infant ability.
At 1-2 months of age, they will kick things with their feet when lying on their backs, try to keep their heads upright when picking up, and grasp toys unconsciously for a moment when handing them to them.
At 3-4 months of age, infants can lift their heads more steadily when lying prone, support their upper bodies with both elbows, turn their heads at will, and roll over, and can support their bodies with both legs when held upright.
At 5-6 months of age, the baby will often lift his head and legs in the supine position, can turn over freely, and shows signs of wanting to crawl when lying prone. They can sit with their hands for a while, and can bear weight on both lower limbs when they stand up.
At 7-8 months of age, they can support their chest and abdomen with their own hands to make their upper body leave the bed, turn their body in place, and crawl forward with both upper limbs. They can sit independently for a long time, lie down from the sitting position, and stand up by holding the railing and sit down from the standing position.
At 9-10 months old, they can crawl forward and backward flexibly, hold the bed rails and stand very steadily, and can walk with a cart and pinch and hold things with their thumbs and index fingers.
At 11-12 months, they can stand and walk independently, bend down to pick up things on the floor, and can pinch small objects such as coins and peanuts with their hands, and pass toys to others.
Infants with cerebral palsy show.
Infants with cerebral palsy are behind in motor development and cannot achieve the abilities of the above mentioned children at the appropriate age.
The infant’s muscle tone and posture are abnormal, such as difficulty in thigh abduction, knee flexion and difficulty in straightening, straightening and inwardness of legs when picked up vertically, crossed legs in a scissors shape, flexion of elbow and wrist joints of upper limbs, and frequent clenching of fists and inwardness of thumbs.
The baby has little active movement, and after 5 months of age, he still cannot reach out to grasp things he likes, or always uses one hand to grasp. * Abnormal reflexes, i.e. delayed disappearance of some primitive reflexes and weakened or non-appearance of normal protective reflexes, may also appear some pathological reflexes.
Tips.
Test your child’s behavioral skills frequently. Infancy is the period of rapid growth, the fastest brain development and the strongest compensatory capacity. If abnormalities are detected early during this period, early training and treatment can maximize brain potential and promote compensatory recovery of brain tissue.
3.Early childhood
Early childhood refers to children between the ages of 1-3 years. Children in this period already have many behavioral abilities, and any abnormalities can be easily detected. Therefore, the symptoms of pediatric cerebral palsy are more obvious in the early childhood period and easy to make a diagnosis.
Normal Early Childhood Abilities.
At 1 year of age, they can walk and their fingers are very flexible, they can pinch and pick up small objects with their thumb and index finger, and they can say simple words.
At 1.5 years old, they can squat and play on their own, throw balls, climb steps, jump on the floor, eat and drink from a cup.
At 2 years old, they can jump with both feet, can run steadily, have accurate hand movements, can complete simple actions, and can express their wishes in simple sentences.
At the age of 3, they can run and jump, ride a small tricycle, eat and dress themselves, and say and sing songs.
Cerebral palsy children show.
The child has physical movement disorders, cannot walk or has abnormal walking posture, such as toeing, scissor gait, limping, cannot squat, etc. The child has inflexible hand movements, cannot fetch things with the hand or always use one hand to get things;
The presence of mental retardation, language development or language disorders, or abnormal vision, hearing loss, etc.
Cognitive and behavioral abnormalities, such as excitement and hyperactivity or isolation and vulnerability, may occur.
Some children with cerebral palsy may have tardive dyskinesia, ataxia, hypotonia, ankylosis, tremor, etc.
Tips.
Parents should not delay the detection of cerebral palsy in early childhood, but should make sure that treatment and training are carried out as soon as possible. The earlier the treatment and training, the better the recovery.