What are the symptoms of cerebral palsy in babies?

Every parent hopes that their child will be born healthy. However, some babies are diagnosed with cerebral palsy after birth. This makes many parents very sad, so what are the symptoms of cerebral palsy in babies?

Symptoms of cerebral palsy

The clinical manifestations of cerebral palsy are varied, mainly:

(1) Early symptoms:

① Psychiatric symptoms: excessive irritability, frequent and continuous crying, difficulty falling asleep, violent reaction to sudden noises and changes in body position, shaking whole body, crying as if frightened.

② Feeding difficulties: manifested as uncoordinated sucking and swallowing, and slow weight gain.

③ Difficulty in care: It is difficult to put the arms into the sleeves when dressing, it is difficult to separate the thighs when changing diapers, and when bathing, as soon as the feet touch the edge of the bathtub or the water surface, the baby's back immediately becomes stiff and arched, accompanied by crying.

(2) Main symptoms:

① Movement disorders: poor motor self-control ability. In severe cases, the hands cannot grasp things, the feet cannot walk, and some cannot even turn over, sit up, stand, chew and swallow normally.

② Postural disorders: various abnormal postures, poor posture stability, the head cannot be upright after 3 months, and is accustomed to leaning to one side, or shaking left and right, front and back. The child does not like to take a bath and has difficulty opening his fist when washing his hands.

③ Intellectual disability: About 1/4 of the children have normal intelligence, about 1/2 have mild to moderate intellectual disability, and about 1/4 have severe intellectual disability.

④ Language barriers: difficulty in language expression, unclear pronunciation or stuttering.

⑤ Visual and auditory impairment: esotropia and difficulty in distinguishing the rhythm of sounds are the most common.

⑥ Growth and development disorders: dwarfism.

⑦ Tooth development disorder: loose texture and easy to break. Orofacial dysfunction, with spasms or sometimes uncoordinated contractions of the facial and tongue muscles, difficulty chewing and swallowing, difficulty closing the mouth, and drooling.

⑧ Emotional and behavioral disorders: stubbornness, willfulness, irritability, withdrawal, mood swings, and sometimes compulsive, self-harming, and aggressive behaviors.

⑨39% to 50% of children with cerebral palsy develop epilepsy due to fixed lesions in the brain, especially those with severe intellectual disability.