Life expectancy
Life expectancy depends largely on the extent and form of infantile cerebral palsy. Most children (over 90%) reach adulthood. Children with only minor impairment usually reach a normal age and in the best case can lead an almost normal life with only minor physical disabilities.
Very severe forms of the disease, which result in severe disability, can be expected to have a significantly reduced life expectancy – they often die as a result of pneumonia. Children who are completely restricted in their movements and have to be artificially fed usually do not reach the age of ten. The brain is the control center of the body.
It controls all senses in the body and processes information. If a part of the brain is destroyed, the brain can no longer give various commands and the body can therefore no longer execute them.The symptoms of infantile cerebral palsy can vary greatly and can vary from severe to hardly noticeable. Among other things, this is related to the cause and location of the brain damage in infantile cerebral palsy.
For example, the greater the bleeding, the more severe the symptoms. However, even a small hemorrhage can have strong effects if it is due to an important localization in the brain. The most common form of cerebral palsy is a disturbance of the musculoskeletal system.
The affected children have difficulty controlling their muscles, cramps occur and muscle tension (spasticity) increases. A special form here is the so-called tetra spasticity. The newborn is often not noticed at first.
When the baby is lifted, it may initially show slight body stiffness. This is known in medicine as “floppy infant” and can be the first sign of infantile cerebral palsy. However, infantile cerebral palsy is often only noticed when the little ones start to turn, crawl or walk and they have difficulties doing so.
This is due to low or excessive muscle tone. The children have little muscle strength and muscle control and are therefore unable to coordinate movement sequences well. There are various forms of movement anomalies.
These include, for example: Hemiplegia: the children can only move the right or left half of the body normally, the other half is either flaccid or has too high a muscle tone Diplegia: the children can move the upper half of the body well, the lower half has difficulties Quadriplegia: the children can hardly move their bodies and often have a mental disability, but can also have a normal IQ Muscle movement anomalies are often observed when the children’s hips and arms are turned and bent inwards, the feet are turned in a so-called pointed foot position and the spine is crooked. The following symptoms can also occur: Thus, everything that does not take place within the framework of the usual early childhood development is conspicuous. Just like the restrictions in mobility, there can also be problems with intelligence.
However, this is by no means necessarily present and affected children can also grow up completely without mental or cognitive deficits if the corresponding areas in the brain are not damaged. In this case, the same level of intelligence can be achieved as with non-diseased peers. Due to the wide range of causes and the variability of the affected brain areas, the severity and thus the symptoms can vary greatly.
- Hemiplegia: the children can only move the right or left half of the body normally, the other half is either flaccid or has too much muscle tone
- Diplegia: children can move the upper half of the body well, the lower half has difficulties
- Quadriplegia: the children can hardly move their bodies and often have a mental disability, but can also have a normal IQ.
- Muscle tremor
- Epilepsy
- Speech disorders
- Intelligence reduction
- Grimacing
- Hearing disorders
- Squint
- Childhood
