Low Weight in Cerebral Palsy : Possibilities

Hi everyone ! Here's a short post on Causes of Weight loss or Poor gain of weight in Cerebral palsy (CP) patients.

1. Feeding problems due to motor deficit -
- Patients with CP have poor feeding due to problems with sucking and swallowing. - They may have  palato-pharyngeal incoordination due to the UMN lesions - especially if there's an accompanying Bulbar or Pseudobulbar palsy.
-So there's impaired oral motor control.
- Repeated aspirations may be present.

2. GERD -
- Gastro esophageal reflux is a common co-morbidity with CP.
- This can be very bothersome for the baby and reduces appetite and may even cause repeated vomiting.

3. Reliance on Care taker -
- The child cannot use his own hands to feed a lot of times.
- This causes excess reliance on the caretaker.
- The caretaker may underfeed the baby weary of the aspirations and Dysphagia of the baby.

4. Poor hygiene -
- Poor hygiene practices are more likely to cause infections (Feco-oral ).
- This is more likely to cause undernutrition due to the infective agents.

Hope this felt clinically relevant and helpful to you !
Stay awesome !

~A.P.Burkholderia