When it comes to infant cerebral palsy, it may well take a number of years for the symptoms to present themselves and very rarely will they before the child has reached the age of 3. So actually being able to provide a diagnosis of cerebral palsy in infants before this age can be extremely difficult to do.
Today when it comes to cerebral palsy this disorder falls into two categories known as “acquired” or “congenital”. In this article, we will take a closer look at what these two types of cerebral palsy are.
Acquired Cerebral Palsy This will occur in around 20% of all infants who suffer from this disorder and will normally have been gotten after the child has been born. This particular form of the disorder can be caused in a number of ways. The main causes is through an injury to their head or through them suffering from an infection to their brain such as bacterial meningitis both of which will result in damage occurring to the brain.
Congenital Cerebral Palsy Of the two types of this disorder a child can suffer from this is the more common. But with this particular form of the disorder, it takes it some time before it can be detected. Often there has been damaged caused to the motor areas of the child’s brain and this can be caused by various different things.
One of the main ways that an infant will end up suffering from cerebral palsy is that they have suffered from an infection or damage has been caused to their brain whilst still in the womb. Further more during the actual labor and delivery stages a child could incur damage to the brain at this time and this will further increase the risk of them suffering from this disorder. Whilst another way in which an infant could end up suffering from cerebral palsy is if they contract jaundice and the condition is left untreated.
But unlike some other disorders including MS, this is not a deteriorative one so as the child grows up their condition will not get any worse. But for some children their parents may notice that their motor skills and development seems to deteriorate over time and when this occurs, their doctor will carry out further to tests in order to find what other things could be causing this to happen.
Although there is, no cure for infant cerebral palsy there are many treatments, which are now, used that can help to reduce the symptoms that they suffer from. But how effective and successful the treatments are that your doctor and team of health specialists choose will depend upon the severity of the disorder. But for many cerebral palsy infants today through the use of the right medications and treatments many are able to lead what would be considered near normal lives.
