Question
A 27-year-old woman, feeling unwell recently, asked after being diagnosed: What are the early symptoms of cerebral palsy?
Answer
The early symptoms of cerebral palsy are characterized by delayed motor development, significantly lagging behind same-age children. Parents typically notice when their child struggles to lift their eyes, experiences body tremors, or has difficulty sitting and standing. Children with cerebral palsy tend to have less movement, especially in the lower limbs, and common symptoms include hemiplegia, bilateral paresis, and quadriplegia. The symptoms of cerebral palsy often manifest in infancy, primarily with abnormal posture and delayed motor development. Although brain damage or abnormal brain development is not a progressive disease, clinical manifestations usually change as brain damage repairs and growth and development progress. For example, neonatal ischemic hypoxic encephalopathy often presents with abnormal muscle tone in early infancy, which gradually changes to increased muscle tone.