Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy is a group of physical disorders and motor problems that related to injury to the brain. "Cerebral" refers to the brain and, "palsy" meaning disorder of movement or posture.

Cerebral Palsy causes uncontrolled reflex movements, muscle spasticity, inability to control posture, and inability to control movement. It can range from to mild to severe depending on the brain's involvement; it can also affect a part, a side, or an entire body.

Although we don't know the exact causes of most case of Cerebral Palsy, we do know that it is not hereditary, contagious, nor does worsen. Cerebral Palsy is can be caused by brain injury that could of occurred during fetal growth, birth, or up the first three year's of the child's life. Children that are at the highest risk of being diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy is the premature, babies who don't cry with in the first five minutes of birth, who needs a ventilator for over four weeks, who have congenital malformations, or who has bleeding in the brain.

Many children that suffer from Cerebral Palsy have congenital malformations of the brain that were not caused by the birthing process. Not all these malformations are detectable. Cerebral Palsy can't be detected by an X-ray or blood test. Instead, a Magnetic resonance imaging or Computed Tomography scan is ordered to provide evidence of hydrocephalus (which is an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the cerebral ventricles). This doesn't prove that the child actually has cerebral palsy nor does it predict the child's behavior or growth, but it does help with the diagnosis and rules out any other motor problem or neurological problems the child may have.

It may take up to eighteen months for a child to be diagnosed for cerebral palsy. It involves a period of waiting