Cerebral palsy may be linked to birth weight – Independent Online

Children whose weight at birth is very low or much higher than normal have a greater risk of suffering from cerebral palsy than average-size babies, according to British scientists.

In a study that compared data from 10 European birth registers of 4 500 children born with the disorder, they found that babies with a low weight for their gestational age were four to six times more likely to have the disability.

Very big babies had a threefold raised risk.

"Babies that are the extreme of their expected growth, too big or too small, are at considerable increase of cerebral palsy," Dr Mary Jane Platt, a public health epidemiologist at the University of Liverpool in England, said in an interview.

"That provides a clue to where we should look more closely for what might be causing cerebral palsy," she added.

Instead of focusing on what happens during the birth, Platt suggests the cause of the disability could occur during the course of the pregnancy.

Children with a slightly higher birthweight than normal had the lowest risk of cerebral palsy, according to the study published in The Lancet medical journal.

Cerebral palsy is the most common cause of physical disability in children in developed countries. It is caused by poor development or damage to motor areas in the brain. Involuntary movement, difficulty in balancing and walking are symptoms. It can also cause mental impairment

The severity of the disability varies.

There is no cure for cerebral palsy but drugs can control seizures and muscle spasms and surgery and therapy can improve physical problems.

Some researchers believe cerebral palsy results from abnormal cell development early during the pregnancy and not from complications during the birth.

In a commentary on the research in the journal Dr Mario Petersen and Frederick Palmer of the University of Tennessee Health Science Centre in Memphis said the results of the study support the hypothesis.

"Babies that are the extreme of their expected growth, too big or too small, are at considerable increase of cerebral palsy," they wrote said.

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Cerebral palsy may be linked to birth weight - Independent Online