Question
My friend’s son is three years old, and he still isn’t walking very well. When I carefully observe the baby, I can tell that he’s different from other children his age, but I can’t quite put my finger on how. So, I took him to the hospital for a brain scan, and they said he has cerebral palsy. I don’t understand how the child could have developed cerebral palsy.
Answer
There are many causes of cerebral palsy, but more than one-third of cases may be due to multiple factors in certain situations. The most common are prenatal factors, including genetic and chromosomal disorders, congenital infections, brain malformations or developmental abnormalities, regional brain ischemia in the fetus, and hypoxia caused by periventricular leukomalacia or basal ganglia damage. Perinatal factors refer to brain injuries occurring within one week after birth, including hydrocephalus, neonatal shock, intracranial hemorrhage, sepsis, or central nervous system infections as well as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Perinatal factors may be an important cause of cerebral palsy in premature infants. Postnatal factors include central nervous system infections, cerebrovascular diseases, head trauma, and non-progressive brain damage caused by poisoning from one to three or four weeks of age. For the treatment of cerebral palsy, traditional Chinese medicine can be used (missing information, should be supplemented according to specific circumstances).