Debosmita Ghosh • 06 Oct 2024
World Cerebral Palsy Day 2024: Know The Symptoms And Causes Of The Congenital Disorder
Know The Symptoms And Causes Of Cerebral Palsy
October 6 is observed as World Cerebral Palsy Day. World Cerebral Palsy Day aims to raise awareness about cerebral palsy. The day also aims to educate people about the challenges faced by people living with cerebral palsy.
Cerebral Palsy is a group of conditions that impacts movement and posture. It’s caused due to damage to the developing brain, usually before birth. Symptoms of the condition appear during infancy or preschool years and vary from very mild to serious. Children who suffer from cerebral palsy tend to have exaggerated reflexes.
Symptoms of the condition could be irregular posture, movements that can’t be controlled, a walk that’s not steady or some combination of these, says Mayo Clinic. You might also notice that the arms, legs and trunk appear to be floppy or they might have stiff muscles, which is known as spasticity.
Symptoms of Cerebral Palsy
Symptoms of cerebral palsy can be different for every individual. For some, the condition might affect the whole body, however, in others, symptoms might only impact one or two limbs or one side of the body. Here, take a look at the different symptoms of cerebral palsy.
Symptoms of movement and coordination
- Stiff muscles and exaggerated reflexes, also known as spasticity
- Variations in muscle tone, such as being either too stiff or too floppy
- Stiff muscles with regular reflexes, known as rigidity
- Lack of balance and muscle coordination, known as ataxia
- Jerky movements that can’t be controlled, known as tremors
- Slow, writhing movements
- Favouring one side of the body, such as only reaching with one hand or dragging a leg while crawling.
- Trouble walking
- Trouble with fine motor skills, such as buttoning clothes or picking up utensils.
Symptoms of speech and eating
- Delays in speech development
- Trouble speaking
- Trouble with sucking, chewing or eating
- Drooling or trouble with swallowing.
Symptoms of development
- Delays in reaching motor skills milestones, such as sitting up or crawling
- Learning disabilities
- Intellectual disabilities
- Delayed growth, resulting in a smaller size than would be expected.
Other symptoms
- Seizures, which are symptoms of epilepsy
- Trouble hearing
- Trouble with vision and changes in eye movements
- Pain or trouble feeling sensations such as touch
- Bladder and bowel issues, including constipation and urinary incontinence
- Mental health conditions, such as emotional conditions and behaviour issues.
Causes of Cerebral Palsy
The condition is caused due to irregular brain development or damage to the developing brain. This usually happens before a child is born, but it can occur at birth or in early infancy. There are several factors that can cause changes in brain development. Here, take a look at some of these factors.
- Gene changes that result in genetic conditions or differences in brain development
- Maternal infections that affect an unborn baby
- Stroke, which interrupts the blood supply to the developing brain
- Bleeding into the brain in the womb or as a newborn
- Infant infections that cause swelling in or around the brain
- Traumatic head injury to an infant, such as from a motor vehicle accident, fall or physical trauma
- Lack of oxygen to the brain is related to hard labour or delivery.
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