Early signs of CP?

[Anonymous]

DS is only 10 weeks and meeting all his milestones, but I have a nagging worry he may have CP. Maybe I am just being a paranoid FTM, or maybe I'm actually seeing something. If your LO has CP, did you notice early signs? Is there any point in further exploring this now, or should I just wait and address it if he fails to meet milestones in the future?

DS was fulltem and healthy when born (no trauma, all-natural birth). He did not BF well but did it a couple of times successfully, so I was not concerned about his nutrition, but 12 hours after getting home, he was not waking up to eat. We tried everything to rouse him, but he would just yawn and go back to sleep. We called our ped and took him to the ER, where he was admitted to the NICU for feared infection due to low body temp and low resting heart rate. It turned out he was just dehydrated. We went home after 4 days, told he just naturally has a low body temp (runs in my fam) and low heart rate (runs in DH's fam). We have since had a follow-up EKG that was totally normal.

He remained hard to wKe up at night t feed but was more alert during the day. We had BFing problems, and it turned out he wasn't getting enough despite long nursing periods (which probably wore him out). We have since not been able to really determine why he can't BF efficiently because my supply is fine. On the bottle, he is much better but niot fast, and he sometimes swallows air (seems to have the suck-swallow-breathe timing a little off at times). We had a tongue tie cut, but it didnt solve the problem.

He is now 10 weeks and wKes himself up much better. The worry about the low body temp and not waking himself up, but he also has low muscle tone (told by an OT we saw for feeding). Despite this, he is holding up head well and lifting it well on his tummy. He smiles and interacts very well with people. He has torticollis and seems to favor his left side and hand, but this may be from torticollis. His right hand sometimes is in a fist when the left isn't, and his thumb is inside is fingers on the right fist more than the left, but he does open and use both hands.

He started drooling after having the tongue tie cut but mostly does it after meals (maybe due to reflux??). I wonder if he has a swallow issue due to this, or if it's just reflux.

At our last appointment, the ped said his head growth was not keeping up at the usual pace but said the initial measurements might have been off. His head was at a normal but smallish size before. He also has a slightly receded jaw but nothing striking.

He also pushes up to standing when he's on your lap quite often, maybe due to reflux??

Do these things sound like what you experienced with CP? Am I overeacting? Should I wait and pursue this if he stops meeting milestones, or is it useful to explore earlier?

[Anonymous]

OP, please calm down. CP is not diagnosed until after 18 months. And it is very, very rare for it to occur when there are NO issues at birth.

[Anonymous]

Your BFing experience sounds very familiar (tongue tied that was unsuccessful, low muscle tone, reflux). For us, it turned out my daughter did have a neuro disorder that manifests itself through developmental delays (very much like CP). At that age, she also had tiny head and kept her hands fisted a ton. HOWEVER, I'm going to tell you what is different about your kid than mine, in the hopes to provide some comfort to you. My kid at 10 weeks could no way bear weight on her legs (still barely can at 14 months), was not smiling or interacting, could not push up at all on her tummy and had zero head control. Also, having had my kid's head measured more times than I like to count, I can assure you the experts would say that you can really only measure head growth every 3-4 months minimum, with 6 month intervals being ideal, because the head grows so slowly that taken measurements more often leaves more room for measuring error.

I think it's great that you are on top of things and watching your son closely, but please don't freak out yet. If he continues to hit milestones, even if slightly delayed, then hopefully that will ease your mind.

[Anonymous]

OP, reflux can also cause -- or be caused by -- tone issues. Tone issues are not synonymous with CP. It sounds like you have those going on, but that does not mean your child has CP.

[Anonymous]

You could take your son to a neuroligist. We were referred when my twins were about 4 months. They were born 9 weeks premature. The neurologist at Georgetown was wonderful, but he moved. I'd ask your pediatrician for a referall. Frankly, I'd be very surprised if you kid had CP.

[Anonymous]

is your child still seeing an ot? ask the person their opinion. I understand development is tricky. Keep an eye out but enjoy your baby! congrats on your first child

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You could take your son to a neuroligist. We were referred when my twins were about 4 months. They were born 9 weeks premature. The neurologist at Georgetown was wonderful, but he moved. I'd ask your pediatrician for a referall. Frankly, I'd be very surprised if you kid had CP.

PP, can you tell me a little about this? What prompted you to go then and what was your experience like? Any diagnosis that early? Thanks so much.

[Anonymous]

My child is profoundly handicapped by CP. No, your experience is very different from mine.

First of all, my daughter woke up every 45 minutes to eat. There was no long sleeping at all. Sleepiness is not a sign of CP that I have ever heard of from any CP mom. Kids with neurological problems are typically very poor sleepers.

Secondly, if your child is bouncing on your lap (standing up) at ten weeks, he DOES NOT have CP.

My child is very handicapped -- can't walk at all -- but I did not notice anything wrong until she was 6-9 months old. At 10 weeks I did not suspect anything was wrong. This is way, way too early to be looking for problems. As another poster said, CP is not diagnosed at this age. Kids aren't walking and they just can't tell the different between hypotonia, slowness, low tone, delays, and CP.

Again -- NOTHING you have posted makes me think CP.

[Anonymous]

Honey, I remember you from a post several weeks ago with essentially the same concerns. Most people replied to relax, take a deep breath, and it was very unlikely that your child had anything seriously wrong with him(I believe you were asking for feedback on low tone and began to also talk about CP). it doesn't really sound like anything has changed, so I'll reiterate what they said-relax!! Enjoy your baby! Babies drool, sleep crappy, move in strange ways, and in general do things to turn otherwise sane mamas into worry-warts . It is probable that what you are seeing is related to his low tone, and at 10 weeks, it's certainly a bad idea to see something like CP in a handful of frankly normal baby issues. From your post it sounds like you have discussed this with your ped-if so, what did they say? If you haven't you can always bring it up at the next appointment but I would be surprised if they say anything due to the fact DC is meeting all milestones.

I know how scary being a new parent can be-we've all been there. But for your sake, your baby's sake, and your sanity's sake, try to relax a bit or you'll be gray before you're child's first birthday!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is profoundly handicapped by CP. No, your experience is very different from mine.

First of all, my daughter woke up every 45 minutes to eat. There was no long sleeping at all. Sleepiness is not a sign of CP that I have ever heard of from any CP mom. Kids with neurological problems are typically very poor sleepers.

Secondly, if your child is bouncing on your lap (standing up) at ten weeks, he DOES NOT have CP.

My child is very handicapped -- can't walk at all -- but I did not notice anything wrong until she was 6-9 months old. At 10 weeks I did not suspect anything was wrong. This is way, way too early to be looking for problems. As another poster said, CP is not diagnosed at this age. Kids aren't walking and they just can't tell the different between hypotonia, slowness, low tone, delays, and CP.

Again -- NOTHING you have posted makes me think CP.

Ok, also, PP, could you tell me a little about how the diagnosis was made? Was your child premature etc.?

[Anonymous]

No, she was born full term via c/s. She was a good nurser and fine and strong and had no problems but she just never rolled over or played with her feet or bounced in my lap or sat up. We finally called Early Intervention and initially we got a diagnosis of hypotonia/low tone/developmental delays. Around a year I started to suspect she had CP and it was confirmed when she was 2.5 at Kennedy Krieger. CP is a lot more than just low tone/hypotonia. I have a nephew with low tone/hypotonia and although there may be a connection with CP you could tell he was going to progress to walking/crawling and she just could not get it together.

You really can't tell much about a 10 week old baby because their brains haven't even fully myelinated yet. My daughter couldn't have her first MRI until she was 16 months and that was inconclusive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, she was born full term via c/s. She was a good nurser and fine and strong and had no problems but she just never rolled over or played with her feet or bounced in my lap or sat up. We finally called Early Intervention and initially we got a diagnosis of hypotonia/low tone/developmental delays. Around a year I started to suspect she had CP and it was confirmed when she was 2.5 at Kennedy Krieger. CP is a lot more than just low tone/hypotonia. I have a nephew with low tone/hypotonia and although there may be a connection with CP you could tell he was going to progress to walking/crawling and she just could not get it together.

You really can't tell much about a 10 week old baby because their brains haven't even fully myelinated yet. My daughter couldn't have her first MRI until she was 16 months and that was inconclusive.

I'm sorry, PP. It sounds like she has a great, committed Mom and advocate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You could take your son to a neuroligist. We were referred when my twins were about 4 months. They were born 9 weeks premature. The neurologist at Georgetown was wonderful, but he moved. I'd ask your pediatrician for a referall. Frankly, I'd be very surprised if you kid had CP.

PP, can you tell me a little about this? What prompted you to go then and what was your experience like? Any diagnosis that early? Thanks so much.

My son was refererred by his physcial therapist basically because of his lack of ability to sustain eye contact - he would zone out and his eyes would drift. He grew out of this - it was some kind of neurological immaturity resulting from prematurity. That was twin A. When we took twin A in, twin B was with us. The nuerologist was more concerned about Twin B who had clonus or an inappropriate reflex in his ankle. The neurologist told us twin B had a 60-70% chance of having mild CP.

They are both 4 and a half now and neither has a neurological condition. Both twins had physcial therapy until they were walking (around 15 months). Twin B was tracked by a neurologist until he was walking. We had a later CP scare about twin A (courtesy of the Gtown developmental clinic), but this was resolved by another neurologist. Twin B had low tone but that is completely no biggie. We are starting OT for fine motor skills, but I think they have fine motor issues due to DH's bad fine motor genes not because of prematurity and it's not a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You could take your son to a neuroligist. We were referred when my twins were about 4 months. They were born 9 weeks premature. The neurologist at Georgetown was wonderful, but he moved. I'd ask your pediatrician for a referall. Frankly, I'd be very surprised if you kid had CP.

PP, can you tell me a little about this? What prompted you to go then and what was your experience like? Any diagnosis that early? Thanks so much.

My son was refererred by his physcial therapist basically because of his lack of ability to sustain eye contact - he would zone out and his eyes would drift. He grew out of this - it was some kind of neurological immaturity resulting from prematurity. That was twin A. When we took twin A in, twin B was with us. The nuerologist was more concerned about Twin B who had clonus or an inappropriate reflex in his ankle. The neurologist told us twin B had a 60-70% chance of having mild CP.

They are both 4 and a half now and neither has a neurological condition. Both twins had physcial therapy until they were walking (around 15 months). Twin B was tracked by a neurologist until he was walking. We had a later CP scare about twin A (courtesy of the Gtown developmental clinic), but this was resolved by another neurologist. Twin B had low tone but that is completely no biggie. We are starting OT for fine motor skills, but I think they have fine motor issues due to DH's bad fine motor genes not because of prematurity and it's not a big deal.

Is it bad that your experience makes me really, really want to forgo neurologists...? We are starting out on our journey now...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, she was born full term via c/s. She was a good nurser and fine and strong and had no problems but she just never rolled over or played with her feet or bounced in my lap or sat up. We finally called Early Intervention and initially we got a diagnosis of hypotonia/low tone/developmental delays. Around a year I started to suspect she had CP and it was confirmed when she was 2.5 at Kennedy Krieger. CP is a lot more than just low tone/hypotonia. I have a nephew with low tone/hypotonia and although there may be a connection with CP you could tell he was going to progress to walking/crawling and she just could not get it together.

You really can't tell much about a 10 week old baby because their brains haven't even fully myelinated yet. My daughter couldn't have her first MRI until she was 16 months and that was inconclusive.

I'm sorry, PP. It sounds like she has a great, committed Mom and advocate.

Thanks for the compliment... She is a great kid and I don't spend a lot of time feeling sorry about her situation.