Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is a neurological condition caused by brain damage that affects muscle and motor movement disability of childhood. It is generally caused during childbirth, delivery, or shortly after birth.

Cerebral palsy refers to a group of symptoms and disabilities. They all are related but, each child will have a different experience of cerebral palsy.

Some of the potential issues a child may face with cerebral palsy are:

• Movement and walking disabilities
• Unable to speak properly
• Learning disability
• Cognitive impairments
• Loss of vision or hearing capacity
• Epilepsy
• Behavioral changes
• Spinal deformities
• Joint issues

There is no cure for this condition, but treatments and therapies can make a big difference.

The main cause is brain damage. But many things can trigger damage

• Poor brain development during pregnancy
• Medical conditions
• Disruption of blood flow to the developing brain
• Genetic conditions
• Medications during pregnancy
• Damage to the head or skull during delivery
• Complications related to premature delivery

Cerebral palsy and incontinence can, unfortunately, occur alongside each other. Many children with this condition take time to learn bladder and bowel incontinence. Cerebral palsy incontinence affects the quality of life. Therefore, supporting the child with cerebral palsy is extremely important.

Cerebral palsy patients have issues with incontinence and bladder overactivity. This could be due to neurological impairment.

• Cerebral palsy causes abnormal muscle tone and muscle spasticity, which affects the muscles that control bladder and bowel movements. Muscle spasticity occurs when muscles involuntarily contract.
• If the bowel and bladder muscles don't contract, the waste is retained in the body. This causes constipation or urinary tract infections.
• Cerebral palsy incontinence is also caused by damage to the nervous system that affects the detrusor (the muscle that makes up the wall of the bladder) in a condition called neurogenic bladder. Neurogenic bladder causes frequent and painful urination.

The different types of the neurogenic bladder are:

1. Overactive bladder
2. Overflow incontinence
3. Stress incontinence
4. Urge incontinence

It is difficult to predict cerebral palsy incontinence at an early stage. It’s because it may take months or years for a child to show some noticeable symptoms after birth. However, several factors can indicate future cerebral palsy incontinence. These are:

• The severity of motor impairments
• Location of motor impairments
• Intellectual disability
• Communication skills
• Age- longer time is taken to develop bladder and bowel management skills.

There are many ways to manage this condition. The outcome would be better if the condition is identified at an early stage. Options to manage include-

• Incontinence training
• Wearing a diaper
• Medications
• Urotherapy
• Catheter
• Bladder augmentation
• Botox injection is given to adults with cerebral palsy.

Children who are suffering from this condition need to see a urologist. A urologist will examine to determine the extent of the problem.

Treatment for incontinence may include biofeedback training, special exercises, surgery, medications, as well as proper toilet posture. Along with this, a muscle education therapist can help the child to relearn control and what they can do to void their bladder to completion.

Children with cerebral palsy urinary incontinence need to be treated with patience and love.