Hypotonia in Babies – Causes & Symptoms
Hypotonia is a problem which relates to the muscle. Thus, it is important to know the meaning of the muscle tone to understand the reason behind hypotonia in babies. In a situation like hypotonia, the children can’t sit properly. Thus, it is also called Floppy Infant Syndrome.
To understand it better, we need to understand the meaning of the muscle tone. Suppose, you relax your left arm and use your right arm to pinch the bicep, the resistance to that you feel is the muscle tone. People infected with the hypotonia tend to have difficulty in sitting, bending the elbows and maintaining postures.
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What Causes Hypotonia in Babies?
The problem of hypotonia in babies can arise from various health disorders. It can appear in babies due to birth injury, Hypotonia in babies can also appear due to condition with spinal cord, brain and nerve.
Let’s understand the cause of hypotonia:
- Damage of nerve due to birth injury.
- Muscular dystrophy.
- Lack of supply of oxygen during birth that lead to malformation.
- Damaging of myelin which helps in transferring of messages from and to brain.
- Trisomy 13
Understanding the symptoms of Hypotonia in Babies
Children having problem with hypotonia shows various symptoms. First of all, their bodies appear like a rag doll. Various other symptoms look like:
- Your baby might face difficulty in lifting head or control neck muscle.
- The kid feels difficulty in placing weight on legs.
- Another symptom that your kid shows is difficulty in feeding. The children have problem swallowing food.
- The kid shows weak cry.
All these are symptoms that a kid facing the problem of hypotonia shows.
How to treat Hypotonia in Babies?
The treatment of hypotonia in babies begin after their birth or before they attain the age of 6 months. The healthcare specialist will examine the baby for the symptoms of the hypotonia on aspects of motor skills, reflexes, sensory skills, balance and cordination.
As a part of observing motor skills, the healthcare specialist will observe how the baby grasps things, and the way the baby rolls over. On the other hand, sensory skills includes touching, vision and hearing.
Other than that, the healthcare specialist will ask a series of questions from you to check your family background on aspect of medical history.
When a healthcare specialist identifies the problem of the hypotonia in babies, the specialist will take steps to treat this problem. The specialist will recommend a series of tests which include:
- MRI scan
- CT Scan
- Genetic test to see any genetic abnormalities that may have caused this problem.
- Electromyograms to see how muscle and nerve function.
After identifying the root cause of the hypotonia in babies, the health specialist will begin the treatment for the same. There are different types of therapies that can strengthen the muscle of your kid and treat the problem of hypotonia.
- The health specialist can conduct a physical and occupational therapy that focuses on improving the motor skills.
- The physical therapy intends to provide the strength to the muscle so the kid can control all its movement.
- Sensory stimulation program develops the sensory function.
