Symptoms of microcephaly in children
A toddler suffering from this disease is easily identified among others, especially if he is over a year old. With the normal development of the facial part of the skull, he will have significantly underdeveloped the brain portion of the head. As this growth grows, this external sign will manifest itself more clearly.
Symptoms of microcephaly in a child who has just been born can be suspected if the circumference of his head is less than 34 centimeters, although sometimes a small head is just an individual feature. Another important indicator of this disease is that the circumference of the chest in the patient is greater than the circumference of the head.
Other signs of brain underdevelopment include:
- complete closure or insufficient fontanel sizes;
- extremely rapid closure of the fontanel (within a month after birth);
- narrowness and slownness of the forehead, convexity of the superciliary arches and protrusion of the ears;
- low muscle tone;
- insufficient height and weight ;
- violation of coordination of movements;
- convulsive syndrome;
- strabismus.
Children with this disease can be both hyperactive, and too apathetic and listless. Keep your head, roll over, sit, stand, crawl, they begin to walk very late. The brain, whose weight usually does not exceed 600 grams, is marked by significant malformations.
Causes of microcephaly in children
It is important to know that there is primary and secondary microcephaly in children. Primary arises as a result of genetic damage in the fetus even during pregnancy, and also because of the influence of some unfavorable factors in the first two trimesters of the fetus. Such factors include smoking, alcoholism, drug addiction of the mother, infectious diseases transferred during this period (most often toxoplasmosis, rubella, cytomegalovirus, herpes), endocrine diseases of the mother, use of teratogenic drugs (for example, antibiotics), radiation. Secondary underdevelopment of the brain is a sign of a more serious condition, in particular cerebral palsy. It can be caused not only by genetics and the influence of adverse factors during pregnancy, but also by the way the delivery took place and even the first months of extrauterine life.
Treatment of microcephaly in children
Underdevelopment of the brain is an incurable disease (it is impossible to resume the natural activity of the brain), which, however, can and even needs to be corrected. To treat such children, they develop a set of measures that are aimed at intellectual and physical development of them so that they have the opportunity to be as socially adapted as possible. So, doctors can recommend:
- Drug therapy to stimulate metabolic processes in the brain.
- Physiotherapy, massage, physiotherapy.
Activities on intellectual development.
Microcephaly in children - prognosis
No matter how terrible it may sound, it is known that people with brain underdevelopment do not live more than 30 years. On average, their life expectancy is about 15 years.
The degree of mental retardation of such children depends on the degree of brain reduction. Such boys and girls, growing up, become very different and different from each other. Some have an easy form of imbecility, characterized by an average degree of intellectual underdevelopment, while others suffer from a deep form of idiocy (the most severe degree of mental retardation).