Definition of Cerebral Palsy

The syndrome is caused by non-progressive brain damage occurring before birth or within 1 month after birth.

The damage is to the brains motor control centers, inhibiting the development of movement and causes abnormal posture.



Diagnosis of cerebral palsy has several essential factors: Bodily movement shows obvious signs of impairment, dystonia, unusual posture and abnormal motion patterns, abnormal reflexes (unconditional reflex, sets up straight reflection, balanced reflection).



Primary high-risk factors for cerebral paralysis: suffocation, premature birth, nuclear jaundice, congenital heteroplasia.



Cerebral palsy complications: Mental handicap, barrier to cognitive development, epilepsy, sensory impairments.



Cerebral palsy classifications:

Spastic type

Involuntary athletic type: athetoid , myodystony, fremitus

Ataxia type

Mixed type

Atonia type



Characteristics of the spastic type:

Upper limbs: increased muscle tension, shoulder joint adduction, elbow flexing, forearm pronation, bending of the finger joints and palm, thumb adduction



The lower limbs extensor tension is increased, hip adductor group, quadriceps femoris, triceps surae muscle tension is increased, hip joint flexure, adduction and involute, knee joint flexure, sharp foot, strephenopodia, strephexopodia



Seat: pelvis caster, round back when sitting with legs extended, ??W?? sitting posture



Standing: sharp foot, walking with a scissors gait, hemiparalysis towing gait





Characteristics of involuntary athletic:

The muscular tone is unstable, increases when anxious, during the infant stage polymyarian tension is low, and the symptoms are obvious when the patient is two or three years old



Involuntary body movements, especially in the face, arms and torso, uncoordinated movements, loss of motion increases



A lack of continuous control over posture



Restricted movement in the oral-facial muscles affecting the tongue, the throat and swallowing capability, dyslalia, dysphonia, laryngeal stridor, disturbance of food intake, increased salivation



Movement range is large

A characteristic symptom is dehise yawning with effort



Unusual posture with low muscular tone:

1. Frog position posture

2. While in a sitting position, there is difficulty raising the head

3. Sitting with upper body anteversion

4. Inverted ??U" posture while the patient is bolstered up horizontally

5. Winged shoulder posture



Unusual posture with hypermyotonia:

1. Head dorsiflexion

2. Opisthotonos

3. Upper limbs: shoulder joint adduction and involute, forearm pronation and extended back, hand makes a fist, hand too far extended

4. Lower limbs: Rigid extension, scissors shaped, sharp foot (6 months later)

5. Kneeling warrior, sitting with legs extended straight

6. TLR (buttocks is higher while the head is low), ATNR posture (asymmetrical tonic neck reflex) Because of the high muscle tone of the neck, the posture mimics the pose of an archer



Methods to treating cerebral palsy:

Physical therapy, PT

Occupational therapy, OT

Speech therapy, ST

Education therapy

Pharmacotherapy: neurophic medication infusion , botulinus toxin A infusion

Chinese traditional treatment: Medicinal bath, wax therapy, massage, acupuncture

Surgical therapy-neural stem cells transplantation and surgery



The treatment principle with regards to cerebral palsy:



The convulsions (including infant hemiparalysis) mainly reduces muscular tone, promotes the infant??s motor ability growth, and encourages the infant to become more active.





Movement principle of involuntary movement: stabilize, median line, flexure pattern, controlling the posture



During daily treatment the nurses should pay special attention to:

Training time

Helping to correct the posture while the patient is seated

Making sure there is plenty of opportunity to practice standing and walking

Focusing on oral cavity mastication, question movement difficulties as soon as possible

Raise the infants level of intelligence

Cerebral Palsy Diagnosis

How is the diagnosis of cerebral palsy made? When an infant or child has brain damage, a variety of symptoms can lead doctors and parents to suspect that something is wrong. In the first few months of life, an infant with brain damage may demonstrate some or all of the following symptoms that can indicate cerebral palsy:

* Lethargy, or lack of alertness
* Irritability or fussiness
* Abnormal, high-pitched cry
* Trembling of the arms and legs
* Poor feeding abilities secondary to problems sucking and swallowing
* Low muscle tone
* Abnormal posture, such as the child favoring one side of the body
* Seizures, staring spells, eye fluttering, body twitching
* Abnormal reflexes.

During the first six months of life, other signs of brain injury suggestive of cerebral palsy also may appear in an infants muscle tone and posture. These signs include:

* Muscle tone may change gradually from low tone to high tone; a baby may go from floppy to very stiff.
* The child may hold his or her hand in tight fists.
* There may be asymmetries of movement, that is, one side of the body may move more easily and freely than the other side.
* The infant may feed poorly, with their tongue pushing food out of their mouth forcefully.

Once a baby with brain damage reaches six months of age, it usually becomes quite apparent that he or she is picking up movement skills slower than normal. Infants with cerebral palsy are more often slow to reach certain developmental milestones, such as rolling over, sitting up, crawling, walking and talking. Parents are more likely to notice developmental delays, abnormal behaviors, and signs of cerebral palsy, especially if this is not their first child. Sometimes when they express their concerns to their physicians, their child is immediately diagnosed as having cerebral palsy. More often, however, medical professionals hesitate to use the term "cerebral palsy"at first. Instead, they may use broader terms such as:

* Developmental delay, which means that a child is slower than normal to develop movement skills such as rolling over and sitting up
* Neuromotor dysfunction, or delay in the maturation of the nervous system
* Motor disability, indicating a long term movement problem
* Central nervous system dysfunction, which is a general term to indicate the brain's improper functioning
* Static encephalopathy, meaning abnormal brain function that is not getting worse.

So why do doctors frequently delay making a final diagnosis and prognosis when a child may have cerebral palsy? Part of the answer lies in the plasticity of a child's central nervous system, or it's ability to recover completely or partially after an injury occurs. The brains of very young children have a much greater capacity to repair themselves than do adult brains. If a brain injury occurs early, the undamaged areas of a child's brain can sometimes take over some of the functions of the damaged areas. Although the child may have some motor impairment, he or she can often make great progress in other motor skills.

Another reason doctors may delay a diagnosis of cerebral palsy is that a child's nervous system organizes over time. Damage to the brain may affect your child's motor abilities differently. For example, tone can go from low to high or vice versa, or involuntary movements can become more obvious. Generally, however, a child's motor symptoms stabilize by two to three years of age. After this age, tone is probably not going to change dramatically.

So what does all of this mean? It means that a cerebral palsy diagnosis is not made over night. Since the extent of your child's problems will probably not be clear for some time, his or her symptoms need to be monitored by an interdisciplinary team. This is a group of professionals with specialties in different areas. These health care professionals gather information on the child's accomplishments and make comparisons over the months and years of the child's life. They will keep you up to date on your child's current needs and problems, as well as the medical reasons for these problems, if known. When diagnosing cerebral palsy, the interdisciplinary team must first conduct an assessment, or evaluation of the child's strengths and needs in all areas. As your child grows older, additional assessments may be necessary.

In conclusion, cerebral palsy is diagnosed by a complete examination of your child's current health status. Doctors will test your child's motor skills and look carefully at his or her medical history. They will also look for slow development, abnormal muscle tone, and unusual posture. When diagnosing cerebral palsy, doctors must rule out other disorders that can cause abnormal movements. Cerebral palsy does not get worse. In other words, it is not progressive. Based on this fact, doctors must make the determination that your child's condition is not progressively getting worse. Doctors will also use a number of different specialized tests in diagnosing cerebral palsy. For example, the doctor may order a CT (computed tomography). This is an imaging of the brain that can determine underdeveloped areas of brain tissue. The doctor may also order an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). This test also generates a picture of the brain to determine areas that may be damaged. In addition to these imaging tests, intelligence testing is also used. This helps to determine if a child is behind from a mental standpoint. In addition to diagnosing cerebral palsy through a complete and thorough examination of the child's abnormalities and behaviors, a review of the mother's pregnancy, labor and delivery and care received is also conducted.

About cerebral palsy

Definition of cerebral palsy
Definition of Cerebral Palsy The syndrome is caused by non-progressive brain damage occurring before birth or within 1 month after birth. The damage is to the brains motor control c...

Causes of cerebral palsy
Causes of Cerebral Palsy Why does your child have cerebral palsy? The simplest answer to this question is because your child has brain damage.This leads naturally into the second qu...

Cerebral palsy diagnosis
Cerebral Palsy Diagnosis How is the diagnosis of cerebral palsy made? When an infant or child has brain damage, a variety of symptoms can lead doctors and parents to suspect that so...

Cerebral palsy statistics
Cerebral Palsy Statistics Because cerebral palsy influences the way children develop, it is known as a developmental disability. In the United States today, more people have cerebra...

Definition of cerebral palsy
Definition of Cerebral Palsy The syndrome is caused by non-progressive brain damage occurring before birth or within 1 month after birth. The damage is to the brains motor control c...

History of cerebral palsy in children
History of Cerebral Palsy in Children Cerebral palsy is not a new disorder.There have probably been children with cerebral palsy as long as there have been children. But the medical...

Types of cerebral palsy
Types of Cerebral Palsy Cerebral palsy is a broad term that encompasses many different disorders of movement and posture. To describe particular types of movement disorders covered ...

Cerebral Palsy Statistics

Because cerebral palsy influences the way children develop, it is known as a developmental disability. In the United States today, more people have cerebral palsy than any other developmental disability, including Down syndrome, epilepsy, and autism. Nearly two children out of every thousand born in this country have some type of cerebral palsy. Studies have shown that at least 5,000 infants and toddlers and 1,200–1,500 preschoolers are diagnosed with cerebral palsy each year. In all, approximately 500,000 people in this country have some degree of cerebral palsy. There is not an American system for monitoring cerebral palsy's occurrence. Therefore it is not known whether the incidence of cerebral palsy is increasing, declining, or staying the same. However, studies have shown that the use of the electronic fetal heart rate monitor during labor and delivery has not decreased the rate of cerebral palsy, primarily because of the mistakes made by doctors and nurses during the birthing process.

Although children with very mild cerebral palsy occasionally recover by the time they are school-aged, cerebral palsy is usually a lifelong disability. In most cases, the movement and other problems associated with cerebral palsy will affect to varying degrees what a child is able to learn and do throughout life.

Types of cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy is a broad term that encompasses many different disorders of movement and posture. To describe particular types of movement disorders covered by the term, pediatricians, neurologists, and therapists use several classification systems and many labels. To understand different types of cerebral palsy more clearly, you must first understand what professionals mean by muscle tone.

All children with cerebral palsy have damage to the area of the brain that controls muscle tone. As a result, they may have increased muscle tone, reduced muscle tone, or a combination of the two (fluctuating tone). Which parts of their bodies are affected by the abnormal muscle tone depends upon where the brain damage occurs.

There are three main types of cerebral palsy:

• Spastic Cerebral Palsy
  (stiff and difficult movement)
• Athetoid Cerebral Palsy
  (involuntary and uncontrolled movement)
• Ataxic Cerebral Palsy
  (disturbed sense of balance and depth perception)
• Mixed Cerebral Palsy
  There may be a combination of these types of cerebral palsy for any one person.

Causes of Cerebral Palsy

Causes of Cerebral Palsy

Why does your child have cerebral palsy? The simplest answer to this question is because your child has brain damage. This leads naturally into the second question: Why does your child have brain damage? There are many possible answers to this second question, because there are many reasons children can sustain brain damage. Your doctor must carefully review your child's health history and conduct a variety of medical and neurological tests to help determine the cause. Cerebral palsy is caused by an injury to the brain before, during, or shortly after birth. In many cases, no one knows for sure what caused the brain injury or what may have been done to prevent the injury. A large number of factors which can injure the developing brain may produce cerebral palsy. In general, however, there are two problems that can cause cerebral palsy:

1. Failure of the brain to develop properly (developmental brain malformation)

2. Neurological damage to the child's developing brain

Whatever the cause of your child's cerebral palsy, the severity of the brain damage generally depends on the type and timing of the injury. For example, in very premature babies, bleeding into the brain (intraventricular hemorrhage) can cause extensive damage. Also, the longer an unborn child goes without oxygen, the greater the extent of brain tissue damage.

Ten to fifteen percent of cerebral palsy is caused from a recognized brain injury, such as infection (like meningitis), bleeding into the brain, and damage caused by lack of oxygen. It is very important that you understand that a brain injury caused during delivery in many cases could have been prevented. Medical mistakes are responsible for thousands and thousands of cerebral palsy cases. It would be virtually impossible for a parent, on their own, to determine if a medical mistake caused their child's cerebral palsy or brain damage. It is only through the concerted efforts of a legal/medical team that can answer the question, "was my child's cerebral palsy preventable?"

Neurotherapy Neurotherapy

Neurotherapy ( NT ) is a medicineless, manipulative, alternative Therapy. Though it has its roots in the ancient Indian scriptures, Dr. Lajpatrai Mehra has reoriented and has evolved the different aspects of Neurotherapy, namely The NT. Principles, The specific NT. Diagnosis, The spcific language of NT. symbols & The different NT. Formulas for treating the different types of diseases/disorders.

Dr. Lajpatrai Mehra has succeeded in developing this therapy after intensive studies of diseases / disorders and correlating them to Anatomy & Physiology, then applying logically, the principles of his Neurotherapy to formulate the different Neurotherapy treatments to cure the various types of diseases.

Neurotherapy is a unique blend of medicineless therapy and medical studies.

The diagnosis includes specific Neurotherapy diagnosis and also medical reports like x-rays, ECG., Sonography, MRI-Scan pathological reports,etc.

NT believes that the body suffers from an ailment because the biochemical balance of acids, alkalies, hormones , enzymes, antigens, antibodies is disturbed in the human system. The NT treatment restores this disturbed biochemical balance by stimulating the various organs to function normally to produce the required chemicals in optimum quantities. In Neurotherapy, pressure is applied to stop the flow of blood to the specific region of the body mainly with feet and occasionally with hands for a particular duration (6 seconds to 40 seconds.) and then released, so that blood flows with a greater force to activate or deactivate the correlated nerves /glands / organs. This may be repeated as per the requirements of the patient, so as to maintains homeostasis of the body's biochemical forces, which in turn restores health.

In 1976 he named this therapy as "Neurotherapy" and in 1999 it was renamed as "Dr. Lajpatrai Mehra's Neurotherapy" to honour `THE CREATOR OF THIS NEUROTHERAPY'.

Nt. treatments are effective in treating Asthma , Arthritis, colds, injuries, hormonal imbalances, mental disorders, menstrual disorders, sterility, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, skin and digestive disorders are just a few examples.

Nt. also emphasises on regulating diet and lifestyle.

Some idea of the approach of the line of NT. treatment may be inferred from some of the examples cited below :-

Pancreas stimulation helps to treat following diseases:
• Blindness • Cancer • Cataract • Cerebral Disorder • Dropfeet • Heart Disorders • Motor Neuron Diseases • Multiple Sclerosis • Myasthenia Gravis • Night Blindness • Paralysis

Most hormones from Hypothalamus & Pituitaryact on a specific target endocrine gland. This gland in turn secretes specific hormones. When the level of these hormones in the blood reaches its desired levels, the pituitary and hypothalamus glands will stop secretion of the corresponding stimulating hormone of that gland. This is known as negative feedback mechanism. The pituitary gland (PIT) secretes hormones which stimulate all endocrine glands except the thymus, the parathyroids and the medulla part of the adrenal glands. It controls the thyroid gland (except for calcitonin secretion), both the adrenal cortices, the ovaries and the testes. Whenever there is a deficiency of a particular hormone, NT can stimulate PIT to secrete the particular stimulating hormone for that gland and correct the deficiency.

By God's grace, every chemical in the body is produced at two or more than two places, so that the person does not die because of deficiency of a particular chemical caused by defect in a particular organ. For example, 85% of Erythropoietin is produced in the kidneys Whenever there is less oxygen in the blood, this chemical will reach the bone marrow and the process of forming blood will start. When both the kidneys do not function properly, the liver will produce this chemical. Instead of 14 counts, haemoglobin produced by the liver will have 8 counts. NT gives importance to this point.

Our brain has 100 billion neurons and the spinal cord has 100 million neurons. The intestines also have 100 million neurons. 12 main types of chemicals are formed by neurons of the intestine, though it is true that the neurons of the brain form these chemicals in large quantity. If these chemicals are not formed due to a problem in brain neurons, there will be diseases like Parkinson's. NT activates the nervous system of the intestines (the enteric nervous system) and cures diseases occuring due to deficiency of chemicals prepared by the central nervous system.

Maintenance of acid-base balance is a very important factor for keeping good health. Acid is a substance which when dissolved in water produces hydrogen ions(H+ Alkali (base) produces hydroxyl ions(OH-), when dissolved in water. Normal pH of blood is between 7.36 and 7.44. If the digestive system functions normally, the acid-base balance is maintained. In most cases, according to NT, cause of disease is disturbance of this balance. When this is corrected, the patient gets healed.

NT. believes that a part of ascending colon is alkaline and the portion from the middle of transverse colon and full portion of descending colon is acidic. It also believes that the right kidney filters 80% alkali and 20% acid and that the left kidney filters 80% acid and 20% alkali. Similarly, it is also assumed that right ovary produces progesterone and left ovary produces oestrogen.

When T-Memory cells of the thymus gland do not work properly, it produces antibodies against the body's own proteins / cells. For example, if the proteins of the synovial membrane of the knee joints enter the blood, thymus will form antibodies against these proteins. The antibodies will affect the synovial membrane of the knee joint or any other joint and produce arthritis. This is called autoimmunity. In allopathy, the treatment is given with medicines containing steroids, whose dosage is much in excess of the body's requirement, thereby producing side effects. In NT, we give the treatment by stimulating the adrenal cortex which produces the required steroids in the right quantity automatically and therefore it will not have any side effects.

85% of the cholesterol is consumed by the liver for converting it into bile salts for digestion of fats. 15% of the cholesterol is consumed by the adrenal cortices, ovaries and testes for preparing corticoids, oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone. All the other hormones are glycoprotein or simple protein in nature. Intestine produces an amino acid called tyrosine during the digestionof food. Tyrosine is used to produce Tri-iodothyronine (T3) and Thyroxine (T4) of the thyroid gland and epinephrine and norepinephrine of the adrenal medulla. Health disorders may occur due to improper digestion and absorption because the patient does amino-acids, minerals and vitamins assimilated from the diet. NT is based on the navel setting of the abdomen, for digesting the food properly. If digestion and absorption are normal, then there will be no shortage of substrates like essential amino acids, minerals and vitamins and the patient is relieved of the ailments.

NT treatment for 2 years can regenerate the nerves in the part of the body, which has been de-nerved even for 2 years, if only the processes (dentrites and axons) are affected but the centre body of the neurone is intact.