Early symptoms of cerebral palsy in premature infants

Release time : 01/18/2025 18:13:27

Premature infant cerebral palsy is a common condition in premature infants, which brings huge mental and economic pressure to families.

Let's delve into premature infant cerebral palsy, a condition commonly encountered in preterm infants. What are the symptoms of premature infant cerebral palsy? If treatment is desired, where should we start?

Early symptoms of Premature Infant Cerebral Palsy: Prematurity-induced cerebral palsy refers to a syndrome caused by non-progressive brain damage that occurs during the neonatal, infantile, or early childhood period.

The symptoms of preterm infant cerebral palsy are often easily noticed because the behavior of preterm infants with cerebral palsy is very odd and significantly different from that of normal infants.

In simple terms, preterm infantile cerebral palsy primarily manifests as central motor disorders and abnormal postures, often accompanied by varying degrees of intellectual disabilities, visual, auditory, language, behavioral, emotional, and psychological disturbances.

It is generally possible to distinguish between preterm infants with cerebral palsy and normal infants during the early stages. Children with cerebral palsy often exhibit varying degrees of motor dysfunction, with some unable to sit or stand upright due to being extremely frail.

Some children are stiff and unable to walk.

Cerebral palsy is a syndrome caused by non-progressive brain damage during the developmental period of 1 month after birth, mainly manifesting as central motor disorders and abnormal posture.

May also be accompanied by intellectual disabilities, convulsions, behavioral abnormalities or sensory and perceptual disturbances, and needs to exclude developmental disorders that cause central paralysis and transient developmental delays in normal infants.

Such children, upon growing up, are generally unable to manage their own lives. Moreover, cerebral palsy often accompanies multiple aspects of physical developmental delays, including intellectual disabilities, visual and auditory impairments, and dental issues.

Is early symptoms of cerebral palsy in preterm infants noticeable? Preterm infants with cerebral palsy are indeed a common condition. The question arises: are the early symptoms of cerebral palsy in preterm infants obvious? The answer is affirmative. There is a significant difference between preterm infants with cerebral palsy and normal children. In fact, the main characteristics of cerebral palsy in preterm infants can be observed from four aspects: motor developmental delays, abnormal muscle tone and posture, reduced or abnormal movements, and abnormal reflexes. These four aspects are all related to the child's movement, so we can observe whether a child has cerebral palsy by observing their movements.

1. Lack of motor development and decreased active movements: Generally, normally developing infants at 3 months of age will be able to lift their heads when lying on their stomachs and kick their legs when lying on their backs.

However, cerebral palsy children often lack these movements and do not engage in interactions with others.

Normally, children at the age of 4-5 months can actively reach out to objects. However, in cases of cerebral palsy, the upper limb movements are very few.

2. Muscle tone abnormality: Pediatric patients with cerebral palsy exhibit either hypotonia or hypertonia compared to normal children.

3. Posture abnormalities: Pediatric patients with cerebral palsy often exhibit head back extension, fall backward when sitting at 6 months old, resembling a "lack of spinal column," and are unable to stand on their left side independently.

The difficulty in urinating and changing diapers, etc.

4. Reflex Abnormalities: In normal infants, the head position abruptly drops when they are startled or frightened, which typically disappears after 6 months of age. However, in patients with cerebral palsy, this reflex does not disappear.

There are also various other types of reflection abnormalities.

How to judge premature infant cerebral palsy (PICP) is actually the same as early diagnosis of PICP. The main point is from four aspects: motor development delay, muscle tone and posture abnormality, reduced active movement and/or abnormal movements and reflex abnormalities.

In fact, the signs of cerebral palsy in preterm infants can be delayed and the complex nature of their development can make early diagnosis of cerebral palsy somewhat difficult.

Pediatric cerebral palsy in newborn period is normal and healthy.

Hypertonia of the extensors may cause an infant to be able to lift its head earlier in a prone position. In addition, hypertonia of the lower extremities may be observed 5-6 months before normal developmental milestones can be achieved, such as being able to be lifted into a sitting position when being pulled up by the hands and knees.

Cerebral palsy is a type of motor function abnormality, and it is a disability.

As the motor abnormalities in cerebral palsy are not quantitative and there are no early signs, signs or laboratory tests that can confirm the diagnosis.

Cerebral palsy is always a diagnostic probe, because definite evidence is indirect, and only based on the behavior and development of certain periods.

Therefore, if you want to know whether a premature infant has cerebral palsy, it is advisable to frequently observe the baby's behavior, because the manifestations of cerebral palsy in premature infants are significantly different from those in normal infants.

Generally, it is possible to determine whether a child has cerebral palsy by observing their behavior.

The treatment of very preterm infant cerebral palsy has long ceased to be a rare condition, given the development of modern medical science. Treatment for very preterm infant cerebral palsy primarily involves conservative approaches. This is because very preterm infant cerebral palsy is often caused by multiple factors, making it difficult to "target the treatment". Instead, we tend to adopt general treatments. Currently, there are three main methods of treating very preterm infant cerebral palsy: pharmacotherapy, comprehensive rehabilitation therapy, and neurotargeted repair technology. While these methods have different focuses, they all contribute to improving the symptoms of very preterm infant cerebral palsy to varying degrees.

Let's now try to understand the three methods of treating preterm infant cerebral palsy.

Pharmacological therapy: cerebral nerve nutrition drugs, muscle relaxants, blood circulation stimulants, etc.

Drugs that include building and repairing brain tissue (cells), such as phosphatidylcholine (including phospholipids, brain phospholipids, sphingomyelin, etc.), can repair the damage of brain cell membrane caused by trauma, bleeding, hypoxia, etc., protect nerve cells, speed up nerve excitation conduction, improve learning and memory functions.

Comprehensive Rehabilitation Medicine: Exercise (physical therapy) includes training in gross motor, fine motor, balance, and coordination abilities; this can involve activities such as crawling, purposeful pointing (to the nose, ears, etc.), grasping and holding objects, sitting up, swinging, walking against walls, or standing still. Physical therapy includes neuro-electronic stimulation therapy, thermal therapy, hydrotherapy; additionally, occupational therapy, which involves specialized hospital or clinic services available in urban areas, is also available to those with economic means. However, its effectiveness tends to be moderate.

Neuro-targeted repair technology: The neurotrophic factor is delivered through an intervention to the damaged site via targeted repair therapy.

Activating dormant neurons, enabling self-renewal and differentiation of neural cells to replace damaged or dead ones, restoring neural circuitry, and promoting organ regeneration.

Misconceptions in the Management of Premature Cerebral Palsy: Early detection of premature cerebral palsy is indeed beneficial for treatment. However, many often fall into misguided approaches to managing this condition, thereby missing the optimal opportunity for treatment. Such missed opportunities can be quite regrettable for the prematurely born child with cerebral palsy.

In fact, the main symptoms of cerebral palsy in preterm infants are primarily manifested in motor expression. However, parents often confuse this interpretation, as some parents may notice that their child exhibits behaviors such as unexplained crying, poor feeding, excessive stillness, and body stiffening when frightened before the age of half a year. They may simply attribute these phenomena to young age, physical weakness, or colds, or digestive issues, and attribute them to common diseases seen in normal children.

However, when some parents observe that their child's motor development, such as rolling over, sitting, standing, walking, etc., lags behind other normal children of the same age, they often simply attribute it to prematurity. They believe that their child will gradually recover with natural growth and development. Consequently, they often adopt a wait-and-see attitude or frequently mistake abnormal postures during movement for issues with the child's bones and muscles. This often leads to missed optimal treatment times for children with cerebral palsy.

Seeking medical advice blindly is another major misconception in treating premature infants with cerebral palsy. Often, upon a doctor's diagnosis of cerebral palsy, parents tend to seek treatment everywhere, hoping that conventional treatments such as injections and medication can alleviate the child's motor functional impairment.

It is not known that cerebral palsy children are not "simple" common diseases, and not all treatment methods can completely cure them.

*This medical section is for reference only.

If you experience discomfort, it is recommended to seek medical attention immediately. The diagnosis and treatment should be based on the medical consultation in person.