For those of you who had babies that were likely to develop CP did they actually get CP and are there early signs? How early can you tell. I know there is a chance Christian may have it but he moves a lot and gets mad when he doesn't get anywhere. He had some issues with eye contact and tracking.

Our little angel
^Alex Joseph^ (11-4/11-5)
Brennan Matthew
Christian Jacob

"
Big brother Justin 8

Valerie,
You are going through so much with your little guys you need to make sure that you get respite care though Regional Center or what ever you early intervention is down in S.D. in the mean time, get hook up with United Cerebral Palsy foundation. They don't just help with CP,they with every type of disability: Austism, CP, etc... Get in thouch with the director of Family Support Services. They will be your best advocate and help guide you through the process. They will put you on their e-mail list, hook you up with a parent support group, etc... Please get in touch with them. No one should feel alone. Not when you have both Christian and Brennan to deal with!
http://www.ucp.org/ucp_general.cfm/1/7

Deborah Mom to BBB Born at 25 Weeks 1 Day 04/21/05
Austin 1 pound 8 ounces
Braedon 1 pound 11 ounces
Caysen 1 pound 13 ounces

http://loveourabc.blogspot.com

http://lilypie.com>http://b3.lily

I was told that Nathalie had a very high chance of developing cp due to her billateral grade III IVHs. She started physical therapy 3 times a week in the NICU and continued after the NICU two times a week. I would do her exercises twice a day (the ones that the PT did) and all day was focused on PT and developmental activities. Very intense, but totally worth it. She hit all of her milestones according to her adjusted age and is doing AMAZING, no signs of cp.

I stopped PT at 14 mths because she decided that she would not colaborate with her PT. She was fed up with him... I continued to do her exercises and continues to do well. She now attends a Center for the Intelligence twice a week (they color, learn about animals, instruments, puzzles, play doh activities, etc). She is now 18 mths (15 mths corrected age) and has such good balance, she throws and kicks the ball, runs, climbs, goes up and down stairs, "reads" books (she knows a couple by heart and reads them along with me), knows about 15 animal sounds (recognizes them in pictures and words
), can identify like 3-4 colors, says about 25 words, is so independent, well, AMAZING.

I totally believe in Early Intervention, good luck!

Monique
Mom to 26.5wk triplets, born 09/14/06
^Nicole^
^Daniel^
Nathalie

HI,

We were told that one of our daughters had a high probability of developing CP due to her PVL (periventricular leukomalacia), which showed up on an ultrasound in the NICU. We don't have a diagnosis yet, but we can see that she is late in achieving most developmental milestones; she's almost 15 months old (13 months adjusted) and is still not crawling, although she has recently started sitting up much better (if placed in a sitting position). This is one of your first signs (delay in reaching developmental milestones).

She has "high tone" in her extremities -- her legs are pretty stiff and she's not as dextrous with her hands as her brother and sister. This is another key indicator of CP, and was already evident from about 6 months.

Lingering infant reflexes is another indicator of CP (most infant reflexes fade during the first year). Our daughter still had traces of the "fencer" reflex at a year.

She has strabismus (crossed eyes) -- another. We had her evaluated by a pediatric opthamologist at around 9 months, and she's wearing glasses, and hopefully this will take care of this issue.

We have her in the Early Intervention program, so she is receiving PT and OT once a week. and I think it's helping a lot. If you haven't done so already, an Early Intervention evaluation can help you spot any difficulties your baby may be having EARLY, so he and you can get the appropriate assistance and support in dealing with it and working on it!

Good luck!

Rachel