Dr. Ovo Ogbinaka, a medical practitioner, has advised parents to give special attention to children living with cerebral palsy to enable them cope with the condition.
Ogbinaka gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin when he discussed emergency health issues.
He described the illness as a congenital disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture of the body.
Cerebral palsy is a disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture that is caused by damage that occurs to the immature, developing brain, most often before birth.
According to medical reports the signs and symptoms appear during infancy or preschool years.
It causes impaired movement associated with abnormal reflexes, floppiness or rigidity of the limbs and trunk, abnormal posture, involuntary movements, unsteady walking, or some combination of these.
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According to the medical practitioner, children having the illness may have problems swallowing and commonly having eye muscle imbalance, in which the eyes don’t focus on the same object.
“Children with cerebral palsy also may suffer reduced range of motion at various joints of their bodies due to muscle stiffness.
“They always feel rejected and unwanted because of their condition, hence we advise parents to pay special attention to them,” he said.
Ogbinaka identified other symptoms of cerebral palsy as variations in muscle tone, such as being either too stiff or too floppy; stiff muscles and exaggerated reflexes (spasticity), stiff muscles with normal reflexes (rigidity).
Others are lack of muscle coordination (ataxia); tremors or involuntary movements; slow writing movements (athetosis); delays in reaching motor skills milestones, such as pushing up on arms and sitting up alone or crawling.
He said that the illness’ effect on functional abilities varies greatly from one person to another.
“Some affected people can walk while others cannot.
“Some people show normal or near-normal intellectual capacity, others may have intellectual disabilities like epilepsy, blindness or deafness,” he said. (NAN)
