Do Babies With Cerebral Palsy Kick

• Cerebral Palsy
• Do Babies With Cerebral Palsy Kick?

Do Babies With Cerebral Palsy Kick Their Legs?

Most babies with cerebral palsy will not kick their legs because their muscles are stiff, resulting in awkward movement. While children without CP will kick their legs and reach out with their arms at about three months, children with CP are likely to miss these developmental milestones.

According to the CDC, about 85% of babies diagnosed with CP have spastic cerebral palsy, which affects their muscle tone. Therefore, the child may feel floppy and stiff when you pick them up, and the stiff muscles could prevent them from kicking their legs.

Two common signs of cerebral palsy include crossing or scissoring the legs and arching the back and neck when the baby is picked up. While a child without CP will be able to crawl on all fours and coordinate their legs, arms, and torso to roll over, a child with cerebral palsy might favor only one side – using the limbs on one side, while not moving the leg and arm on the other side. The baby with CP may bounce or scoot rather than crawl and may not be able to bring their hands together for clapping.

What Are Signs of CP?

When cerebral palsy is suspected, the doctors, parents, and caregivers should be alert to any delays in the baby’s physical and emotional development and compare their progress to the normal stages of child development. If there are signs that the baby is falling behind in one or more areas of development (particularly motor skills, such as sitting, crawling, standing, and hand-eye coordination), these may be signs of cerebral palsy.

Some of the most distinct signs of cerebral palsy may include:

• The child does not kick the legs
• Movement is limp or floppy
• Movement is rigid or stiff
• Unusual or awkward muscle tone
• Lop-sided movement (on one side of the body)
• Inability to hold their head up
• No smile even at three months
• Not bringing hands together or hand to mouth
• Not reaching out for objects
• Not rolling over
• Not turning the head in response to sight or sound
• Difficulties in eye movement
• Lack of sensitivity to light or sound
• Inability to walk by 18 months
• Delayed signs of communication
• Not gaining familiarity with people or objects

Severe forms of cerebral palsy are likely to be diagnosed earlier, but in cases of moderate or mild cerebral palsy, classic signs may not clearly appear until the child gets a little older (generally during preschool years).

In any case where CP is suspected or a possibility, close observation is required from childbirth until three years of age. Doctors, parents, and caregivers should remain alert to any signs indicating that the child is lagging in developmental milestones compared to other children.

About Developmental Milestones

Is Your Child’s Birth Injury the Result of Medical Malpractice?

Parents whose children suffer birth injuries want and deserve answers as to whether mistakes by the doctors and nurses contributed to the injury. At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, our award-winning birth injury attorneys have represented families all over the United States in their time of need after a birth injury. We use our skills and expertise to obtain for you and your child a medical malpractice settlement that will help provide specialized medical therapy in order to maximize the quality of life and independence of your child throughout their life.

• Were there signs of birth injury or birth complications during the pregnancy, labor, and delivery process, or presence of risk factors, which were either not recognized or properly treated?
• During the labor and delivery, were there clear indications that the baby was suffering from fetal distress, but appropriate actions were not taken by the maternal fetal specialists, obstetrician or nurses?
• Was there a delay in diagnosis of a likely premature birth that led to later complications, including brain injury?
• Did the medical team fail to order a series of tests to diagnose this birth complication in a timely manner?
• Was the decision to perform a cesarean delivery delayed leading to birth trauma during vaginal delivery or labor?
• Did the neonatal resuscitation team fail to quickly begin important breathing support?
• Should brain cooling (also called “hypothermia therapy”) have been provided to your baby, but the doctors and nurses failed to perform the appropriate tests or ignored the results of the tests?

Our birth injury attorneys have recovered millions of dollars in settlements for families of children that have suffered a birth injury. At no point in our legal intake process will we ask you to pay anything. The medical review of your case and the consultation are free. We only receive payment when you do, no matter how long or tough your case is.

Registered Nurses and Nurse-Attorneys Are a Vital Part of Our Birth Injury Team…and Yours

Most birth injury law firms will employ one or two nurses to assist the review of cases and medical research. But Miller Weisbrod Olesky offers an unmatched number of nurses and nurse-attorney employees support to both the birth injury attorneys and our clients.

Our team of registered nursing staff and nurse-attorneys bring a deep level of medical and personal insight to every client’s case. Our nursing team includes both an experienced labor and delivery nurse as well as an ICU nurse. Working closely with the rest of the team, they investigate the reasons behind a birth injury and how medical professionals breached their standard of care.

Why Should You Talk with the Highly Capable Attorneys at Miller Weisbrod Olesky?

The only way to find out if you have a birth injury case is to talk to a lawyer experienced in birth injury lawsuits. It’s not uncommon that a birth related complication results in a preventable birth injury, including cerebral palsy, but it takes a detailed expert review by a birth injury attorney of the medical records from your child’s birth to determine if the birth injury was the result of medical malpractice.

At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, a team of committed lawyers, nurses and paralegals uses our detailed medical negligence case review process to assess your child’s potential birth injury case. We start by learning more about you and your child and the status of meeting/missing developmental milestones. Then we gather medical records to determine what happened before, during pregnancy. We call in documented and proven medical experts who review your records and let us know if they think medical errors could have caused your child’s injuries.

If we feel medical negligence caused or contributed to wrongful birth in your case, we meet with you to discuss how you can receive compensation from the medical professionals who made the errors. Our birth injury attorneys have recovered millions of dollars in settlements for families of children that have suffered a birth injury.

At no point in our legal intake process will we ask you to pay anything. The medical review of your case and the consultation are free. We only receive payment when you do no matter how long or tough your case is.

Contact Our Birth Injury Lawyers