Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorder that affect a personal ability to move and maintain balance and posture.
Cerebral means having to do with brain. Palsy means weakness or a problem with the muscles.
This occurs when there is a problem that affect the development of the baby brain while still in the womb.
What causes CP?
- Brain infection like meningitis
- Severe jaundice in an infant
- Maternal infection
- Gene mutation that lead to abnormal brain development
- Lack of oxygen during labor
- Fetal stroke
- Traumatic head injury
Symptoms of CP
- Delay in reaching motor skills milestone. E.g. sitting on his/her own, crawling, rolling etc.
- Tremors or involuntary movements
- Excessive drooling or difficult in swallowing
- Lack of muscle coordination
- Favoring one side of the body
Who is at risk of cerebral palsy?
They are certain factors that put an infant to an increased risk of CP including:
- Premature birth
- Low birth weight
- Breech birth
- Rhesus factor incompatibility
Different types of CP
- Spastic CP that causes the muscles to be stiff and exaggerated reflex making walking to be difficult
- Dyskinetic CP- have trouble in controlling their body movements e.g. hands or legs. It makes the person have problem in sitting or walking even in swallowing.
- Hypotonic CP-with this, they experience difficulty in controlling of muscles because they are overly relaxed.
Prevention
- Make sure you are vaccinated before pregnancy
- See early and pre-continuous antenatal
- Practice good child safety
- Avoid drugs such as alcohol during pregnancy.
If you happen to have a child with CP, don’t hide them, they are blessings and we have institutions that can help them.
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