one sided weakness?

oandmplus1 · August 2012

I am an occasional poster on this board, but I never know if I should repeat all of DD's history or not each time I post. Anyway, brief history, her only diagnosis so far are vision related, low muscle tone, and global developmental delays, she also has a lot of sensory issues (but no SPD diagnosis yet). We have an appointment next week with the neuro-developmental pedi, but something has been worrying me and I was just curious if anyone else has experience with this.

DD favors her right of her body. She will only chew with the right side (uses her tongue to move food from left side to right every bite), she always leads with the right foot when pulling herself to standing and her left leg drags a little as she is trying to stand. Also when she walks, it is almost like she has a foot drop in the left side. She prefers to do things with her right hand as well although the weakness isn't as notable as in her foot, you can sometimes see her crawl a little crooked though.

I don't know if it is related, but she had a cataract in her left eye at birth as well, and has underdeveloped optic nerves in both eyes, but the left is smaller than the right too (and her left eye is also slightly smaller than the right).

I am a little afraid of what they might tell me about this and just hoping some of you might have experience with this so that I am prepared for what we may hear at the doctor.

MaxandRuby · August 2012

DS2 favors his right side also and has since he was 6mos old. He has CP (cerebral palsy). He has some vision issues also (common with CP) but his are moderate to severe farsightedness in both eyes, strabismus with esotropia (just had surgery to hopefully correct this) and has astigmatism in each eye. DS2 does drag his left foot a little when walking with his walker but I attribute that to his left side being his weaker side. In actuality he doesn't really lift up each foot very high when he takes a step and that is part of the reason also.

Try not to worry and use Dr. Google too much. You are not going to know a diagnosis until your appointment. Some people feel getting a diagnosis is like an "ah-ha!" moment while others it doesn't necessarily answer questions. Good luck with your appointment next week and let us know how it goes!

carlinlp · August 2012

DS suffered a severe left sided weakness with his vaccine injury. We were told after testing it was due to viral activity. Both my daughter and I also tested for left sided weakness and high viral activity as well. We have detoxed over the last two years and done a lot of biomedical treatments in our family. DS's is 100% gone. DD's is about 95% better and mine is not noticeable to me at all.

thefuturemrskudla · August 2012

Have you seen a physiatrist?

Rose.9.6.03 · August 2012

My DD had one-sided weakness as an infant. She also had torticollis and a facial palsy. Between the one-side weakness and the facial palsy (which only affected one side of her face), doctors were concerned that she had an in-utero stroke or other form of brain damage. We ended up doing an MRI at 7 months, which proved normal.

Basically, the doctors decided that she just favored her right side for whatever reason. We were already in PT for the tort, and we just ended up staying in PT longer to help resolve the one-sided weakness/favoritism.

Today, she has no evidence of favoring one side or the other (beyond basic right-handedness). She's not the most physically-coordinated kid, but totally within the realm of "average."

I hope that everything goes well with the doctor's visit and that you get some answers. Good luck.

realisticdreams · August 2012

Has she had any brain imaging? I thought maybe from the optic nerve comment, but I know some of that stuff they are able to see by looking into the eye. Peyton had right sided weakness that was apparent within the first 2 months of her life. She wouldn't really track with her right eye, and her right arm rarely moved, same with her leg and her ankle was inverted, it looked like a club foot. We started PT at 2 months, so we had someone there guiding us from the beginning. She will be 3 in November and with the exception of jumping (which she's starting to do) it would be hard for anyone to now pick up that she prefers her left side. She writes with her left hand (not sure if she was going to be a lefty anyway) and when going up/down steps always puts more weight on the left side.

Her official diagnosis was stroke in-utero and right sided hemiparesis, mild cerebral palsy. I lost alot of blood around 20 weeks when I had a partial placental abruption, so her stroke wasn't during a birth trauma.

GL.

oandmplus1 · August 2012

Thanks for all the comments. She has had an MRI to confirm the optic nerve hypoplasia which showed her brain was normal.

I am hoping it is just general weakness related to her low muscle tone, but am really trying to stay away from google.

Thanis again

realisticdreams · August 2012

kballou:
Thanks for all the comments. She has had an MRI to confirm the optic nerve hypoplasia which showed her brain was normal.
I am hoping it is just general weakness related to her low muscle tone, but am really trying to stay away from google.
Thanis again

Just make her use the weak side as much as possible. We pushed Peyton so hard, I will even admit, too hard but I am so glad that we did. Also depending on when she had a theoretical stroke vs when she had the MRI it doesn't necessarily mean it could have never happened. Peyton's stroke is barely even visible on her latest MRI's, as her brain continues to grow, etc.

tuicatmama · August 2012

Our guy had a stroke, and was recently diagnosed with mild CP.

He has left sided weakness, mostly causing issues with his hand/forearm.

OT has been amazing, and we've come a long way using Constraint Induced Movement Therapy.

Good luck, and as a previous poster said....watch the googling...

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