Low Jeremy asked:


Cerebral palsy is a neurological disease that is characterized by low or non-coordination of muscles to body movements. The disease is caused by a partial or total damage to the brain during the early stages of life. There are instances that infants that are not yet born, those still inside the womb may acquire such disease when proper care of the mother is not done.

The word cerebral is a term used by medical people to talk about the brain. The word is an adjective of cerebrum, a part of the brain that is responsible from sending neurons to the muscles. It is the one that lets human move. The term palsy on the other hand, means posture or movement disorder. Summing up the two terms and their meaning, one can arrive at one concrete meaning. Cerebral palsy based on the analogy is a disorder or imbalance in the muscle movement due to low or non-coordination of the brain.

Because the disease mostly develops during the early stages of life, the primary victims of such disease or disorder are the infants. When an infant experiences difficulty in breathing, in suckling or can bowel easily during first weeks of child birth, the same must be carefully observed. The following biological process involves the movement of the muscle. If those processes respond negatively there is a higher possibility that the child has cerebral palsy.

Infants are generally not easy to take care of. They have no natural communicating device except their baby cries. Cerebral palsied infants need extra care due to their low or non-reaction of the brain. Here are some tips to be done in proper caring for a cerebral palsied infant:

• Do not be intimidated or be shy in asking your paediatrician for the proper care of your child. There are special treatments that must be done to affect infants but you need to know it through your paediatrician. Since cerebral palsy is directly connected to body movements and the brain, there are brain and muscle therapies that are needed to be done but with the supervision or upon the prescription of professional practitioners.

• Be sensitive to your baby’s movements or reactions. Infants affected by cerebral palsy may cry often due to inability to physically react to brain. You must not take your child’s needs for granted.

• Treat your baby the normal way. Play with him. It is very important to have time for your child when you can bond with him. Psychologically, it will help your child.

Cerebral palsied infants are no ordinary babies but need to be regarded as normal. Special care and attention is needed. You can have them treated fully or at least partially.



Tom

Low Jeremy asked:


Cerebral Palsy is the disorder that every parent should always watch out whenever their new child is still carried within the mother’s womb or being born. It may impair certain abilities of the child such as motor and learning skills. Diagnosing the child for any signs of cerebral palsy will be of great help in determining the proper treatment for him/her.

The question that will certainly pop-up instantly in your mind is “what are the signs that may indicate the possibility of a child to have cerebral palsy?” Although the exact cause has yet to be determined, the signs that will be discussed in this article can give you a hint if your child is suffering from cerebral palsy or not. Read on and learn more about the signs.

There are different signs which may determine the presence of cerebral palsy depends on the child’s age. A newly-born infant may show the following signs which are an indication of cerebral palsy presence in him/her?

• Suckling difficulties;

• Abnormality and breathing; or

• Bowel evacuating.

As the infant grows, there are other signs to look out such as the consistent use of the half part of the body compared to the other half and favoring a particular posture compared to the other one. The infant who is usually stiff, lacking any ****** expressions, disorganized eye movements, head movements not following where a particular sound came from, and lack of any active response to any level of human voice can give you a cue if something is wrong.

In addition, if the child is having difficulty to perform basic movements such as rolling, crawling, smiling, and walking suggest possible presence of cerebral palsy. His/her hands are shaking. Making it difficult for them to grasp and play with their toys.

Other cerebral palsy signs also depend on the type the child is suffering into. The following are summary of the possible symptoms for each type of cerebral palsy:

• A child suffering from spastic diplegics has the typical scissors gait where the legs are crossing at the knees.

• If he/she has spastic hemiparesis, he/she may have uncontrollable tremors on the other half of his/her body.

• Athetoid cerebral palsy-affected children have difficulty in writing as well as movements on their extremities.

• Ataxic cerebral palsy-affected children are experiencing difficulty in executing basic motor tasks such as buttoning shirts and tremors also occurs while doing voluntary movements.

Always remember that once you have noticed any signs present on your child, he/she must be brought immediately to your physician for more accurate diagnosis.



Bradley

Low Jeremy asked:


Cerebral palsy is a physical disability most common in childhood basically affecting the movements and posture causing limited activity being attributed to disturbances, which are not progressive occurring in the developing infant or fatal brain. The motor disorders of cerebral palsy are habitually accompanied by disturbances of cognition, sensation, perception, communication, and behavior or seizure disorder.

There are secondary orthopaedic abnormality inhibited by the child such as scoliosis of the spine and hip dislocation. Scoliosis is a condition involving spine’s lateral curvature greater than ten degrees without possible cure but can be treated by surgery or bracing.

William Little first detected the cerebral palsy also known as cerebral paralysis in 1860. He was a British surgeon identifying that asphyxia during birth is the major cause of the abnormality. Asphyxia is a condition where there is an occurrence of extremely deficient oxygen supply to the body leading to inability of breathing normally.

In 1897, Sigmund Freud, a neurologist said that the disorder is not brought about by a difficult birth rather from the symptoms of other effects during the development of the fetus.

In 1980, it was found out by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke that only few number of cases of cerebral palsy is due to lack of oxygen during birth.

It was believed by Thomas Galton that there is a consistency between aptitude and physical disability however this attitude stays prevalent leading to an over diagnosed cerebral palsy disorder in 1970.

This leads to occurrences of different cerebral palsy subtypes including hypotonic CP however only one individual out of 2000 are positively diagnosed with this disorder. So it only means that cerebral palsy depends on the people’s interpretation of what the disorder is. Spastic, Ataxic, Atheoid, and mixed are recognized by scholars as important forms of cerebral palsy open to subtypes existence.

It is a misnomer that cerebral palsy causes mental retardation because only those individual with brain damage associated with frontal cerebral cortex acquired this disorder.

Learning difficulties can occur but individuals with CP can have normal lives when it is managed effectively and coherently. Difficulties in movements are common with people diagnosed with cerebral palsy varying from minor levels of clumsiness.

Cerebral palsy can occur during pregnancy with a rate of 75%, at birth with a 5% rating, after birth with a 15% rating. Eighty percent of cerebral palsy causes are not known. However some known causes includes malnutrition, infections and major head injury during early stage of childhood.



Amber

Low Jeremy asked:


Are you aware of what athetoid cerebral palsy is? If you are not, then it is important that you proceed on reading this article. It is important that you are fully aware of what it is so that you will know if your child has athetoid cerebral palsy at an early age and treat him/her immediately. Read on and learn more facts about this type of cerebral palsy.

Athetoid cerebral palsy is accounted for about 10 to 20 percent of the entire cerebral palsy cases. It is commonly caused by the damage on the cerebellum or basal ganglia part of the brain. The basal ganglia are responsible for maintaining smooth and coordinated movements and whole body posture.

Individuals affected by athetoid cerebral palsy usually demonstrate the following signs:

• Unmanageable, slow, involuntary writhing movements of limbs;

• Involuntary movements of the tongue or face;

• Inability to walk or stand without any aid due to poor muscle tone;

• Difficulty in holding or grasping objects;

• Inability of feeding themselves and perform various activities in their everyday living due to uncoordinated movements;

• Demonstrates drooling, griming, and thrusting their tongues out; and

• Inability to swallow food or speak normally (dysatrhria condition);

The treatments for athetoid cerebral palsy-affected individuals involve a prescribed group of drugs known as anticholinergics that is used to decrease abnormal and unnecessary movements. It blocks the effects of acetylcholine which triggers muscle contraction when acted on nerve cells. Other prescribed drugs used in treating athetoid cerebral palsy are:

• Trihexyphenidyl;

• Benztropine; and

• Procyclidine.

There are also physical therapies employed to help restore certain movements such as swallowing as well as to decrease slurred speech. The advancement of technology enables athetoid cerebral palsy patients to use voice synthesizers and other related technology to make their speech clearer.

Although such type of cerebral palsy does not worsen as the affected individual ages, it is really distressing on the part of the individuals with normal intelligence to live with this condition.

At this point, you care as their parent will help in motivating them to work harder and submit themselves to physical therapies in order for them to overcome speech and movement disabilities. Moral support will also count, giving them the encouragement to continue with their therapy sessions and make them feel there are still left hope for them to live life normally later on.



Jeff

Low Jeremy asked:


Are you a parent with a child whom you think have cerebral palsy? Do you want to learn more about the disorder?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then joining a Cerebral Palsy Association in your area may be the right choice you can make. Cerebral Palsy Associations are not-for-profit organization that reaches out to people who has children with Cerebral Palsy.

Almost all parts o the United States have these kinds of organization so you won’t have any difficulty finding one to join in. They offer support, and also information about the cerebral palsy. Some Cerebral Palsy Associations can even help you with the treatment cost. They can do this through financial support by organizing a charity for Cerebral Palsy patients.

They sometimes host a charity event to raise cash in order to help people parents with cerebral palsy children with their therapy. Therapy for cerebral palsy can be very expensive. So, if you are a parent who wants treatment for your child who has cerebral palsy, you can seek help in these organizations.

However, you can also join these organizations even if you don’t have children who have cerebral palsy. You can simply join a Cerebral Palsy Association to help with their charity work.

Some Cerebral Palsy Associations are integrated with other Cerebral Palsy Association in the United States. Information about these organizations is often posted in the internet for easier access and to gather more members. You can contact their office by emailing them.

Always remember that joining these kinds of organizations is voluntary. So, there is no pressure whether you will join or not. If you think you can cope with the illness on your own, then you probably don’t need to join these kinds of organizations. However, if you are in need of support, you can always turn to these organizations who will happily give it to you.

You can also join as a volunteer to help the organization with the charity events that will raise money for cerebral palsy patients. This is a great way to help.

The events included will depend on the plan of the organization. Some organization will hire a famous music artist and ask them to do a live performance to raise money, some host bingo events, and some even gaming events. These organizations really work hard to help people cope with cerebral palsy, especially the parents. They help them financially and they also help them emotionally. This is a great way to obtain support if you can’t carry the burden anymore.



Earl

Low Jeremy asked:


In the US, there are at least five hundred thousand infants affected by cerebral palsy. The disorder is caused by improper carriage of the mother during the early months when a child is still developing in the womb. In the survey done in the year 2003, Center for Disease Control said that one child affected by cerebral palsy needs at least $950,000 dollars for the cost of living. People affected with such disorder need a little extra care that sometimes may require financial compromise.

Cerebral palsy is a disorder causing a low or non-coordination of the muscle to the brain. This low or non-reaction of the body muscle is due to the brain damage acquired by a person during the early stages in his life. When a person has cerebral palsy he cannot properly move his limbs like a normal person.

Cerebral is a medical term used to refer for the brain. It is an adjective for the cerebrum, a part of the brain that is responsible for the motion, feelings, speech, sight and other senses and actions that can be done by humans. When the brain, this time termed as the cerebra, is damaged by definite and indefinite cause, the motion as done by the muscle is greatly affected.

Palsy is the term that means disorder in the posture of a human or the movements he is making. Because the brain is damaged, palsy may happen to a person. Summing the two terms together, a concrete idea or definition can be made. It can therefore be stated that cerebral palsy is the disorder in the movements or the posture of a person caused by the partial or full damage in the brain.

There are different types or level of cerebral palsy. The levels are indicated by the intensity of the damaged caused in the brain and the manifestation of the disorder. There are basic signs of cerebral palsy that are with no respect to the level of the damage in the brain.

When a person has cerebral palsy, he may experience problems in maintaining balance and muscle coordination. He may also experience difficulty in controlling his muscles, thus having difficulty in eating, drinking, standing, etc. A person with cerebral palsy may also be epileptic. Studies showed that 1 out of 3 CP affected person has epilepsy. Another thing is that, a person affected by Cerebral palsy may experience difficulty in learning.

The four categories of Cerebral palsy are 1) Spastic CP 2) Athetoid/ dyskenetic CP 3) Ataxic CP 4) Mixed CP.

The first three categories differ according to the place of damage in the brain and the intensity of it. The fourth category is the worst. That is when a person may experience two to three categories combined.

Cerebral palsy is irreversible and incurable. But there are therapies that can help a person affected to regain little coordination and control.



Stacy

Low Jeremy asked:


Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term referring to a group of various conditions thus no two people is alike even though they have similar diagnosis. There are three major classifications of cerebral palsy describing different impairments on movements and reflecting the damage area of the brain. They are Spastic, Athetoid, Ataxic or Mixed.

Spastic cerebral palsy is classified further by topography depending on the affected region of the body. The classifications include hemiplegia affecting one side more than the other, diplegia affecting the lower body more than the upper body and quadriplegia affecting the four limbs equally.

Cerebral palsy is a disorder that is not progressive. An individual’s disorder can improve during childhood when extensive care from specialists is properly given. The injury of the brain is not progressive but adults with cerebral palsy shows signs of functional declines. This includes decrease in motion range, loss of ambulation or increased pain. They also have an accelerated process of aging, arthritis and osteoporosis.

Individuals with cerebral palsy can live independently depending on the severity of disability. Some may require personal assistant providing services on the daily living activities for individuals having cerebral palsy. Survival of individuals with cerebral palsy is associated with the ability to roll, ambulate or self feed.

Cerebral palsy has no cure but different forms of cerebral palsy therapy can help an individual to function more effectively. Standing frames can be incorporated reducing spasticity and improving motion range for people having cerebral palsy using wheelchairs.

The treatment is normally symptomatic focusing on helping the individual in developing possible motor skills and learning how to compensate lack of them. The disorder does not necessarily affect the life span of an individual so the treatment basically lies on improving the quality of life. Research shows that people with cerebral palsy availing the systems like Blissymbols, which is a form of augmentative, and alternative communication system are often successful.

There are also alternative treatments appropriate for cerebral palsy. There is an available not profit organization dedicated for health and development of children having some form of brain damage including children diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

You can ask the help of the Institute for Achievement of Human Potential established in May of 1955 that has helped and treated thousands of children. They claim that a home program with a healthy diet, respiratory programs and clean air can help children with cerebral palsy and neurological problems without the need of medication.



Barbara

Low Jeremy asked:


Does your baby experience difficulty in controlling his head even after three months? Does he have poor swallowing and ******* reflex? And even after several months, he is still not capable of walking? If your kid suffers form all of these, he might be suffering from cerebral palsy.

What is cerebral palsy? It is a condition wherein a child suffers from inability to move some of the muscles in the body. This is due to the injury in some areas of the brain that controls the movement and muscle tone. The child with this impairment maybe clumsy or awkward, or in severe cases, he might not be able to walk because of the poor muscle tone. It can also be the cause of mental retardation.

Cerebral palsy is incurable. Once your child has it, it is permanent and irreversible but the signs and symptoms can be treated. It depends upon the severity of the impairment. The cerebral palsy treatment is very complicated and more often, it involves multi-disciplinary approach. The cerebral palsy treatment can be easy without mental retardation, hearing loss and visual impairment.

The best cerebral palsy treatment is physical therapy. If your kid’s muscle is weak, your kid might need to do some specific exercises to prevent muscle atrophy because of lack of use. If your kid’s muscles are spastic, some treatments are also required to prevent the result of significant mobility losses.

The physical therapy is done to improve motor development skills and coordination as well. As your kid grows older, he will need to undergo certain training such as behavioral and psychological therapy to be able to improve their coping skills and daily living activities. You can also improve your kid’s ability in speech, visualization and hearing as you let them take specific cerebral palsy treatment that focuses more on the development in these areas.

Your kids will need to take medication to make the cerebral palsy treatment effective. Most of the drugs that will be taken are like muscle relaxing drugs that is injected to relax some of the muscle groups temporarily. Some cerebral palsy patients have involuntary writhing movements so they need to take certain drugs to treat it. If your kid is suffering from seizure, your kid must take anti-seizure drugs to prevent it.

Surgeries are also used as cerebral palsy treatment. These operations will make the short muscles to elongate as well as to reduce the numbers of nerves to lessen its spasticity. Brain implants and surgery are also proven effective cerebral palsy treatment. You will need to ask your kid’s doctor about it.



Jennifer

Low Jeremy asked:


Cerebral palsy also known as cerebral paralysis is a disorder that greatly affects body movements. It also pertains to a group of disorder where in the exact cause cannot be traced. Some of its recorded major causes include brain hypoxia, asphyxia, premature birth or birth trauma, particular infections acquired by the mother before and during birth, genetic susceptibility, and infections on central nervous systems, consecutive hematomas or trauma.

Cerebral palsy after birth is caused by physical injury on the brain, toxins, and incidents involving brain hypoxia and meningitis or encephalitis. Ten percent of the cerebral palsy cases are caused by intrapartum asphyxia. Research shows that infections acquired by mothers even those causes difficult to determine can triple the child’s risks in the disorder development because of the acquired toxicity on the brain’s fetus of cytokines formed out of inflammatory response.

Babies born prematurely have higher risks of developing cerebral palsy because they are still the progrssive stage of organs development. There is an increase hazards of asphyxia or other forms of brain injury that also increases the probability of acquiring cerebral palsy.

Another important factor of cerebral palsy is periventricular leukomalacia. It is also associated with disorders of the chromosomes or anomalies on brain structure including lissencephaly.

Occurrences of cerebral palsy are best calculated with children around six years of age. It is recorded that two out of 1000 babies being born alive are diagnosed with cerebral palsy in industrialized countries. It is alarming that in United States, cerebral palsy cases varies from 1.5 to 4 babies out of 1000 babies born alive are affected by the disorder. Approximation has reached five thousand to ten thousand babies in the United States are born with cerebral palsy. Every year, preschoolers detected with cerebral palsy has reached one thousand five hundred in quantity.

Sixty percent cases of mental retardation are caused by brain damage incurred outside of the occipital, temporal, parietal or Basal Ganglia. This disorder can only arise when the child is deprived of the chance to learn. The disorder does not entirely depends on the brain injury but on the individuals ability to have child’s communication and able to teach the child how to communicate well on speech and other communication forms.

Deafness or blindness acquired by the child having cerebral palsy due to occipital or temporal lobes damage during birth can be taught sign language for them to communicate. Another way is teaching them tulonoma,a method where the child puts the hands on speaker’s mouth and able to decipher what they are trying to say basing from the movements of the lips associated with certain words.



Nancy

Low Jeremy asked:


Cerebral Palsy, then commonly known as “cerebral paralysis”, was first recognized in 1860 by William Little, a British surgeon. Little increased the possibility that asphyxia during the birth of a child is the main cause of cerebral palsy. But not until 1897, a well known neurologist named Sigmund Freud suggested that difficult birth was not a basis but rather a symptom of some other effects on fetal progress. During the 1980’s, a research conducted by NINDS or National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, suggested also that only some cases of cerebral palsy are caused by asphyxia during child birth.

The word “cerebral” in medical term is for the brain while “palsy” means the disorder of the posture or movement. By the definition, cerebral palsy describes to a group of situation wherein the posture and movement are very affected as a result to the damage done to one or more parts of the brain.

Depending on which part of the brain was damaged, the following conditions may be present although every individual with cerebral palsy is affected in a very different way:

• Coordination and balance problems

• Difficulty in maintaining and controlling of posture (like when a person wants to sit upright, help is required)

• Having an epilepsy (one out of three in children with cerebral palsy have an epilepsy

• Difficulty in talking, drinking, and eating (swallowing)

• Difficulty in learning process

Types of Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy disorder can be categorized into four types and these are ataxic, athetoid, spastic, and mixed:

• Ataxic- this type of CP affects to about 5 to 10 percent of most CP patients. Ataxic is characterized by the deficits to the balance and depth sensitivity that results to poor coordination in fine motor tasks.

• Athetoid- a type of CP that affects to about 10 to 20% of most CP patients. Athetoid is characterized by very slow movements. Uncontrollable movements usually occur in hands, arms, legs, and feet. Also, face and tongue muscles can be affected that may result into drooling or grimacing. Affected tongue muscles may also result to difficulty in speaking.

• Spastic- the most common type of CP that accounts to about 70 to 80 percent of all CP patients. Spastic is characterized by the stiffing of limb muscles that can result to permanent contraction.

• Mixed- this type of CP affects to about 30 percent of all CP cases. Symptoms are like to one of the three types stated above. Furthermore, athetoid and spastic forms of CP can coexist.

In general, cerebral palsy is not a progressive type where the brain can’t get any worse. Application of regular and appropriate therapy is provided so as to improve mobility and coordination skills.



Curtis