Cerebral Palsy Symptoms

When an infant is brain damaged, there are a variety of symptoms which indicate both to the doctor and to the child’s parents that something is wrong.  During their first months an infant with brain damage may display the following symptoms:

  • lack of attentiveness
  • Sustained Irritability
  • A high-pitched cry
  • Wobbling arms and legs
  • Problems sucking and swallowing resulting in poor eating habits
  • Low muscle tone
  • Favoring one side of their body
  • Seizures, sustained staring spells, eye fluttering, body twitching

During the first six months, in addition to these behavioral symptoms, brain injury can also be indicated by observing the infant’s muscle tone and posture. One would look for the following:

  • Muscle tone may change progressively from low tone (very limp) to high tone (very stiff);
  • The child’s hands will be in a fist-like grip;
  • One side of the body may move more easily than the other side;
  • The infant will often feed poorly - their tongue will force food out of their mouths.

When a brain damaged baby reaches six months, it usually becomes clear that he or she will learn movement skills slower than normal.  Infants with cerebral palsy are slow to reach milestones like rolling over, sitting up, crawling, walking and talking.  Occasionally when parents report their observations, the physician will immediately diagnose their child as having cerebral palsy.  In most cases, however, doctors hesitate to diagnose "cerebral palsy" and may opt for a more general term:
Developmental delay, indicating that the child is slower than normal to develop movement skills;
Neuromotor dysfunction which describes a delay in the maturation of the nervous system;  

Motor disability, which indicates a permanent movement problem
Central nervous system dysfunction - a term which indicates the brain is not functioning properly;
Static encephalopathy which describes abnormal brain function that is not deteriorating;
The reason doctors often delay making a final diagnosis of cerebral palsy has to do with the ability of the child’s nervous system to recover partially or fully when an injury occurs.  The brains of infants have a capacity to repair themselves in a way that adult brains can’t.  The undamaged areas of a very young child's brain can assume some of the functions of the damaged areas.  Although the child may be left with some motor impairment, they can achieve remarkable progress in other motor skills. 

Another reason doctors will often hold back on rendering a cerebral palsy diagnosis is that a child's nervous system matures over time.  Damage to the brain may affect a child's motor abilities in different ways.  For instance, tone can alternate from high to low or the opposite. Conversely,  involuntary movements may become more noticeable.  Generally a child's motor symptoms stabilize by the child’s 2nd or 3rd birthday.  Afterwards, tone is probably not likely to change.  

For these reasons, a cerebral palsy diagnosis is not made quickly or impulsively.  Since it may take a year or more until the extent of your child's problems are clearly defined, their symptoms need to be monitored by a group of professionals with specialties in different areas.  These professionals gather information on the child's physical abilities and monitor comparisons over the months and years of the child's life. When diagnosing cerebral palsy, the team of specialists will initially evaluate the child's strengths and weaknesses. With time, additional assessments may be necessary. 

Cerebral palsy is diagnosed by a thorough evaluation of your child's current health status.  Doctors will analyze motor skills and medical history and look for slow development, atypical muscle tone and abnormal posture.  When diagnosing cerebral palsy, doctors must eliminate all the other disorders that cause abnormal movements.  One important feature of cerebral palsy is that it is not progressive, it does not get worse with time.   Doctors have a number of imaging tests to confirm a cerebral palsy diagnosis like a CT which is an imaging of the brain that can determine underdeveloped areas of brain tissue. Alternatively, an MRI can be ordered which generates a picture of the brain to pinpoint damaged areas.  In addition, intelligence testing can determine if a child is mentally challenged.  In addition to evaluating the child’s mental and physical health, a review of the mother's pregnancy, labor and delivery and care received can also be helpful in determining a diagnosis.

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