Symptoms of hydrocephalus in the baby

The hydrocephalus is unfortunately not rare in children. It is a disease that often occurs in connection with other more complex diseases and offers a special symptom pattern that differs from that of adults. In young patients with hydrocephalus in early childhood, there is an increase in the circumference of the head with taut, possibly bulging fontanelles (as yet unclosed openings of the skull bones in children) and gaping cranial sutures.

The individual skull bones are not yet firmly fused together in an infant. Therefore, the typical symptoms of hydrocephalus appear late in the course. The skull bones of the baby react for a very long time in such a way that they slip further apart when the volume of the brain and its meninges increases due to a waterlogging.

They thus make room for the swelling brain. The first symptom of hydrocephalus in babies is therefore a significant enlargement of the back of the head compared to the rest of the head. The skull bones often slide apart, which means that the sutures and fontanelles remain unsealed for a very long time.

If no therapy is carried out during this phase, the disproportion in size between the face and the back of the head remains. The increased accumulation of cerebral fluid in and around the brain often leads to other complaints. These symptoms are nausea and gushing vomiting, especially on an empty stomach.

In addition, headaches are very often present, which, together with the nausea, often causes “moaning” and severe restlessness in the child. Especially with babies, a so-called sunset phenomenon often occurs. Pediatricians use it to describe the symptom of downward twisted eyes, so that only the upper part of the iris above the lower eyelid is visible.

Due to the increased cerebral fluid, the nerves responsible for the eye muscles are pinched and cause this eye position. The child often sees double images as a result. The growing pressure within the brain and the divergence of the brain tissue can also lead to symptoms of epilepsy.

Especially the infantile forms of epilepsy show a colorful picture of movement and convulsion patterns.A hydrocephalus can also cause other symptoms such as paralysis and trembling, and should always make you think of a hydrocephalus. In the course of the disease, the optic nerve atrophies (optic atrophy) and squints (strabismus). Older children with hydrocephalus also show other symptoms.

In these children, the main symptoms are signs of cerebral pressure, i.e. a change in behaviour associated with headaches and sobering up, and a congestive papilla. A congestive papilla is a swelling of the optic nerve head (nervus opticus), which is located on the retina. Such a congestive papilla manifests itself to the patient as headache and visual disturbances.