It often happens that parents read some information on the internet and compare their child’s condition – such as head tilting back, airplane hands, tiptoeing, etc. – and suspect that their child has cerebral palsy and go to the hospital. Other children are judged by doctors at local hospitals to have high muscle tone and suspect that their child has cerebral palsy. They bring their child to the doctor under anxiety, but nothing is found to be wrong. In fact, this is all because parents are overly worried and anxious. So what are the conditions that are easily confused by parents? A baby with cerebral palsy must have brain damage, and a cranial MRI will show brain damage lesions. In general, there are many causes of brain damage – asphyxia and hypoxia, having a genetic metabolic disease, neonatal bilirubin encephalopathy, neonatal hypoglycemia, etc. Special attention needs to be paid to premature infants, who are prone to brain injury due to immaturity. Nearly half of the children with cerebral palsy are caused by prematurity, which usually occurs in premature babies born at 28-34 weeks of gestational age. The younger the gestational age at birth, the higher the incidence of cerebral palsy. Therefore, parents of preterm babies should pay great attention to this condition. The incidence of cerebral palsy in preterm infants is about 3%. Early symptoms of cerebral palsy: 1. feeding difficulties may occur; 2. motor development is backward, such as inability to hold the head upright or lift the head unsteadily at 3 months of age, inability to support weight with forearms at 4 months of age, jerking and crossing of both lower limbs; 3. abnormal muscle tone, most children have increased muscle tone, rigid limbs and abnormal posture; 4. abnormal neurological reflexes, which need to be examined and diagnosed by a doctor. The following conditions may be normal performance: Tiptoeing: having tiptoeing does not necessarily mean that the baby has cerebral palsy, further confirmation is needed. Head tilted back: If the baby’s head is tilted back when lying in bed, but not when sitting or holding, it is usually not a problem. Airplane hand: It is normal for babies before half a year old to have both upper limbs straight and backward when lying on their stomachs. As long as the baby can reach the objects in front of him/her freely, there is no need to worry.