Tear off prejudice and correctly understand cerebral palsy from the movie "Little Me"

A cerebral palsy patient is a person with brain palsy. You must be thinking so, right?

This is a misunderstanding. In fact, they can be deliverymen, fitness coaches, chefs, clerks in foreign companies, bloggers, video editors, and even talk show hosts.

Through the popular movie "Little Me", we got to know Liu Chunhe, a boy with cerebral palsy. With his indomitable spirit and optimistic attitude, he wrote a touching chapter of his life. His growth story also leads us into the world of cerebral palsy patients.

Cerebral palsy does not mean mental retardation

There are about 6 million cerebral palsy patients in my country, and the number is increasing by 50,000 per year. The incidence of cerebral palsy in children aged 0-6 is about 2.48‰. There are many misunderstandings about cerebral palsy. For example, people subconsciously believe that cerebral palsy means mental retardation, that people with cerebral palsy can only give up, that cerebral palsy patients are all children, and that people with cerebral palsy cannot have children.

Cerebral palsy mainly affects the patient's motor and language abilities, such as walking, sitting, hand coordination and pronunciation. Although about 75% of cerebral palsy patients have varying degrees of intellectual disability, there are still a considerable number of patients with normal or even supernormal intelligence. Just like Liu Chunhe, despite his physical limitations, his musical talent shines like a bright star.

Searching for the cause

Cerebral palsy refers to a non-progressive brain damage syndrome caused by various reasons in the early stage of brain development from before birth to one month after birth, which leads to persistent central movement and postural development disorders.

In addition to a few genetic factors, cerebral palsy mainly occurs in the perinatal period: before birth, parents' smoking, alcoholism or drug abuse can affect the quality of the embryo; factors such as early poisoning of pregnant mothers and exposure to radiation can lead to poor development of embryonic brain cells. During delivery, premature birth, birth trauma, and hypoxia can all cause fetal brain damage; prolonged delivery, fetal umbilical cord around the neck, meconium aspiration, poor placental function, etc. can also cause fetal brain hypoxia. After the baby is born, severe asphyxia, brain trauma, neonatal hemorrhage, hyperbilirubinemia, etc. may all cause cerebral palsy.

Identifying early signs of cerebral palsy

Parents should pay special attention when they find that their children are significantly behind their peers in terms of their mastery of gross motor skills such as lifting their heads, turning over, sitting, crawling, standing and walking. If infants and young children continue to have abnormal postures, such as tilting their heads back, stiff or weak limbs, and asymmetrical postures, these may also be early signs of cerebral palsy. For example, when a newborn is lying on its back, its lower limbs are overextended and its legs are difficult to separate, making it difficult to change its diaper. At the same time, its upper limbs are flexed, its hands are clenched tightly, feeding is not smooth, sucking and swallowing cannot be coordinated, and it spits frequently. About 30% of children with cerebral palsy will experience symptoms similar to severe "colic" in the first 3 months after birth. Even at 5 months, they are still unable to raise their hands to their eyes and fiddle with them repeatedly. At 7-8 months, the baby still cannot sit alone. Even if he is forced to sit, his knees cannot be straightened. When he is supported under the armpits to stand upright, his knees will overextend and even cross in a scissors shape. He will not crawl, and even if he crawls, it is only the upper limbs that move. Under 1 year old, the baby always grabs objects with one hand, often with a strange expression on his face and regular tongue-sticking movements.

Once the child is found to have these abnormal behaviors, parents should take the child to see a doctor in time. In the movie, the family closely followed every subtle change of Liu Chunhe and actively sought professional help to buy him precious treatment time.

There is a golden period for treatment

Treating cerebral palsy is a long and complicated process. The golden period for the treatment of cerebral palsy is from birth to about 3 years old, and the earlier the better. During this stage, the brain has strong plasticity and repair ability. Rehabilitation methods include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, drug therapy, surgical treatment, etc. With the company of his grandmother, Liu Chunhe re-examined his dignity and choices. With the persistence of his mother, Liu Chunhe continued to strive to explore himself in difficult situations and completed a moving growth leap. The road to recovery for patients with cerebral palsy must be inseparable from the love and company of their families.

As a line in the movie goes: "It's okay for me to walk slowly." Through rehabilitation treatment and self-effort, many cerebral palsy patients have not only mastered the ability to take care of themselves, but also been able to work and start a family. Even if they are crooked, they can still live a wonderful life.

(The author Wang Mingyu is the attending physician of the Department of Neurosurgery of the First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University and a member of the Health Communication Working Committee of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association)