Signs of Cerebral Palsy at Birth
What Are Signs of Cerebral Palsy at Birth?
The signs of cerebral palsy at birth may include breathing problems (including the need for neonatal resuscitation), slow or absent reflexes, movement abnormalities, pale or bluish skin and lips, weak cries, irritability, difficulties in feeding or taking milk/formula, inability to lift head, floppy muscles, low alertness, dilated pupils, excessive drooling, irregular heart rate, and/or seizures.
Signs of Cerebral Palsy Based on Age after Birth
Babies below 6 months
- Stiff or floppy muscle tone
- Inability to hold up the head when picked up
- Stiff or crossed legs when picked up
- Overextending the neck and back when held, as though the baby is pushing away from you
Babies older than 6 months
- Inability to roll over
- Difficulty in clapping or putting their hands together
- Inability to bring their hands to the mouth
- Reach out with just one hand, while holding the other hand in a fist
Babies older than 10 months
- Lopsided crawling, pushing with one leg and hand, while dragging the opposite limbs
- Not crawling on all fours, but hopping on the knees or scooting around on the buttocks
- Inability to stand even when holding onto support
Signs of Cerebral Palsy Based on Type
Spastic Cerebral Palsy (Stiffness of muscle tone)
- Abnormal movements
- Delayed milestones for crawling, sitting up, and walking
- Stiffness of muscles and difficulty in controlling muscle movements
- Slurred speech or poor word formation
- Difficulties in swallowing due to poor muscle coordination of mouth and tongue
Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy
(Abnormal involuntary movements)
- Dystonia (repetitive, twisting movements)
- Athetosis (slow, writhing motions)
- Chorea (irregular, unpredictable movements)
- Poor coordination and awkward posture
- Movements may be accompanied by pain
About Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy
Ataxic Cerebral Palsy
(Irregular movements)
- Shaky movements and tremors
- Poor coordination
- Unsteady balance
- Speaking in monotone with abnormal pauses (“scanning speech”)
- Slow eye motion and inability to focus
Mixed Cerebral Palsy
(Combination of symptoms)
- Both spastic and non-spastic CP symptoms may be present. For example, the child may have scanning speech (ataxic CP) and exaggerated reflexes (spastic CP).
Neurological Symptoms of Cerebral Palsy
Although cerebral palsy is primarily marked by motor function abnormalities, a number of neurological symptoms may co-occur alongside CP as follows:
- Autism
- ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)
- Epilepsy (seizure disorder)
- Behavioral problems
- Learning disabilities
- Intellectual disabilities
- Speech and language problems
- Vision or hearing impairments
- Cognitive impairments
About Signs & Symptoms of Cerebral Palsy
According to the Autism and Developmental Disability Monitoring Network (ADDM), more than two in five children with cerebral palsy will have co-occurring epilepsy.
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
Miller Weisbrod Olesky
At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, the attorneys, nurses, and staff understand that parents of children with birth injuries feel overwhelmed. So, every client has the attention and support of a team of trained, compassionate professionals. But we don’t just offer compassion.
We offer a process to help you discover whether your child’s birth injury, HIE, cerebral palsy or brain injury was caused by a medical error.
Call our offices today at 888.987.0005 for experienced assistance in a free consultation.
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Testimonials
- Lyric C. I feel like our voice was heard in a sense of what can possibly go wrong in a delivery and finding us answers. I feel with our settlement, we are now in a comfortable position to provide for our son.
- Lyssa L. They are not just people that say “hey let's get you money and let's go” The law firm was very thorough with us. It was awesome. I don't want to cry, because I think about and it's amazing that they were able to help me and that we were able to help my son and get the story out there.
- Jay C. Throughout the process, one thing was clear to us, the ultimate interest of our child was the utmost concern of Max and his team and as parents navigating a situation like that, that was refreshing to know we had them firmly on our side. I highly recommend them.