Cerebral palsy: Cerebral palsy in children

The only element that all children with cerebral palsy have in common is difficulty in controlling certain muscles. It is indeed difficult to find two children with CP, which are similar, and that damage to brain maturation can take many different forms, sometimes affecting also motor control, intelligence, vision, hearing, language and emotional state. In some people these senses are totally affected but in others senses are partially affected.

Cerebral palsy is not a disease and should not be treated as one. Cerebral palsy describes a group of motor disabilities caused by damage to the child's brain that can occur during the prenatal, perinatal or postnatal period.

The cerebral palsy in children most widely accepted definition is that of a disorder of postural tone and movement. Under the concept of cerebral palsy in children are different types of diseases with different causes, with variable outcome depending on the degree of involvement and extent of brain injury.

How many people suffer from this disorder?

Despite progress in preventing and treating certain causes of cerebral palsy in children, the number of children and adults affected has not changed or may have increased somewhat over the past 30 years. Unfortunately, many babies suffer from problems in the developing nervous system or suffer neurological damage. Research to improve care for these children is in progress.

In the majority of cases the cerebral palsy cause remains unknown and that’s why it can not be prevented. Despite improvements in medical care provided for sick babies and pregnant women the number of patients with cerebral palsy is growing. This situation is possible because there are a lot of premature babies who live but are prone to develop cerebral palsy. In the past the main causes of cerebral palsy were rubella syndrome and Rh disease. In present Rh syndrome may be prevented by providing adequate care for women with negative Rh. Women can do immunity tests to rubella in order to find out if they can have a baby. Wounds or blows to the head, are some of the significant causes of the disease in the first months of the baby and can often be prevented by correct positioning of car seats for children.

The most common causes of cerebral palsy in children are:

Disease of the mother during pregnancy (mumps, chickenpox etc.).
Infection and / or high fever in baby that was not controlled in time.
Lack of oxygen in the baby during birth.
Poor medical care before, during or after delivery.
Brain injury as a result of a serious accident.
Blood group incompatibility

Motor damage results in the individual problems such as poor posture, involuntary movements, muscle stiffness, spasms, difficulty speaking, walking and / or hear. Therefore, the treatment varies with the condition or injury and the extent to which the brain has been affected, so that each individual requires a customized treatment.
There are three main types of CP:

Spastic: causes difficulty to produce movements
Athetoid: causes involuntary and uncontrollable movements
Ataxic: causes uncoordinated movements

It is important to note that these three types of CP may also occur in combination. Physical therapists working with children with CP often describe the child as having low tone (hypotonia), high tone (hypertonia), or fluctuating tone. Other terms you may hear when discussing the CP refer to the area of the body being affected by brain damage. The problems associated with one side of the body tells is known as hemiplegia. Quadriplegia occurs when the problem affects the upper and lower body. Displegía is when the problem affects the lower body and paraplegia when it affects the upper body.