Hi--I'm new to this board...
My daughter (3 weeks old) was just diagnosed with mild Periventricular Leukomalacia (PVL). One of the common effects in many children with PVL is Cerebral Palsy. Since our daughter is only 3 wks. it is impossible to tell at this point if she will develop CP and to what extent. For anyone with a child with CP, I was wondering what the first signs you saw were and at what age you began noticing them.
Thanks.
Re: CP?
We started noticing things with P around 2 months of age. Also the early hand preference as well, it's normally something I think a 2 or 3 year old starts to develop but I didn't know that since it was our first child. She literally didn't move the right side of her body at all and she also had torticollis. From her arm to her hand and leg even her right ankle was different. We started PT at 2 months of age for her torticollis and saw ortho at 4 months and neuro at 6 months, where she got her clinical diagnosis of mild CP (she has right sided hemiparesis from a pre-natal stroke). She had a 2nd confirmation diagnosis at 9 months as well.
Are you going to be connected with your states earlier intervention program?
twinjkj - here is my list that I discussed with the pedi at his 9mos well child appointment along with notes. As you can see, I felt there was a lot off but I also had an older son that I could compare to.
**Make sure you notate when your child reaches milestones. I think you can download a checklist off of the CDC website. This will help you to realize if milestones are being hit early, on time, or late but try not to let it freak you out. Milestone dates are averages meaning some kids will reach them early or late and it is still normal. When DS2 was diagnosed, one of the things we had to bring was a milestone checklist type of thing. Had I known we were in store for this (SN child) I would have notated more things.
**Also, DS2 had undiagnosed torticollis which is how he entered into EI (the original pedi refused to diagnose torticollis although EI took one look at him while working with DS1 and asked about it).
1. Fisted hands (this is one of those primitive reflexes that should have been gone by 9mos)
2. Eye crossing - intermittently both eyes but not at the same time (this is not necessarily CP related but a lot of people with CP have vision issues)
3. Body tone/stiffness (had to physically bend DS2's legs during diaper changes)
4. Constipation
5. Right side dominance/ignores left hand and arm (dominance is not typically determined until much later like 2 or 3yr old I think)
6. Not sitting yet
7. Not crawling or attempting to crawl
8. Flexed feet (like you are pointing your feet upward towards your head)
9. Feet quivers (found out when he was diagnosed this was called ankle clonus)
10. Mouth quiver
11. Not banging objects together
12. Swallows saliva - chokes? Coughs a lot, seems like he swallows hard or wrong a lot
13. Does not pull to stand
14. Late rolling
15. Not much babbling
Good luck to you and your LO. Stick around the board. It is a really great group of women.
PP gave good advice as far as tracking milestones. Stick with this board if you like it, you can learn a lot. Let me know if there is anything else I can try to answer for you. Enjoy your baby!