Cerebral Palsy Day 2023 – What are the signs?

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common physical disability in childhood, but there is a broad lack of knowledge of what it is and how it’s caused.

World Cerebral Palsy Day aims to raise awareness of what it is, how it is caused, and how early detection and intervention are key to improving outcomes for people with CP.

What is cerebral palsy?

Cerebral palsy is an injury to the brain, causing problems with movement that you see in early childhood. Children with CP often have poor coordination, weak muscles, and tremors. They also have problems with sensation, vision, hearing, swallowing, and talking.

One of the main causes of cerebral palsy is a hypoxic brain injury during childbirth, where the baby’s brain gets starved of oxygen. Sometimes this cannot be prevented, or it is impossible to work out what has caused the baby to be injured, but it is often the result of one of the following things happening during childbirth:

• Allowing labour to go on for too long
• Not properly monitoring the baby’s heartbeat
• Not doing enough cardiotocography (CTG) traces or interpreting them incorrectly
• The umbilical cord being wrapped around the baby’s neck
• Delaying a Caesarean section
• Missing signs of foetal distress, such as meconium

Are all children born with the condition?

Most children with cerebral palsy are born with the condition but a small number have what is called acquired cerebral palsy, which means that the disorder begins more than 28 days after birth, often from infections such as meningitis or encephalitis, problems with blood flow to the brain, such as a stroke, or a head injury from a car accident, fall or child abuse.

What are the early warning signs?

The signs of cerebral palsy usually appear within the first few months of a child’s life, but many children are not diagnosed until age 2 or later. The signs to look out for tend to be:

• Developmental delays in actions such as rolling over, sitting, crawling and walking
• Abnormal muscle tone, where the child’s body parts are either floppy or too stiff.
• Abnormal posture, where the child uses one side of the body more than the other when reaching, crawling, or moving.

How We Can Help

At Harding Evans, our clinical negligence solicitors understand the challenges involved in raising a child with cerebral palsy. As well as the obvious emotional impact, a significant amount of essential equipment, assistance with care, education and home adaptations will also be required.

Our expert solicitors will be able to establish whether you are entitled you make a negligence claim. Contact us today.