DS 12months has 'mild spasticity' in arm. Does anyone have any knowledge?

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DS has just turned 12 months, since birth he has always held his right arm stiff and rigid with his fist closed and thumb tucked in.
His left hand is ok however he doesnt have excellent control but does try and is managing ok. He can lift his right arm up and clap together however when he is given an object always uses his left and if forced to use his right can grip but then lets go.
GP referred him to an orthopaedic who said he appears to have mild spasticity and mild upper limb paresis of upper right arm, he has now referred DS to community paediatriction (currently waiting for appointment .
Does anyone have any experience of this, if so please can you tell me as much as you know about it? Does it go with age or does something have to be done about it?
DS doesnt seem to be making much progress with it and we are getting a little worried.
Thanks

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some one will come along at advise you soon am sure

Is his right leg stiff or affected at all?

Thanks, so far his leg doesnt seem to be affected, he has just started standing with support so it just seems to be his right arm. but his balance isnt very steady.
We also have a DD who is older than him and compared to her he doesnt seem as 'sturdy' but whether thats just the way he is or if its something to do with his arm i am not sure.
We have looked up loads of stuff related to it and spoken to friends and it all seems to point to cerebal palsey or stroke at birth!!! but none of this was mentioned at the drs, its just what we have looked up and come accross, although we arnt reading too much into it.

I was asking about leg involvement for exactly that reason - my daughter was diagnosed with a (left) hemiplegia, affecting arm and leg on left side. I wondered if it was the same.
I guess you need to get a referral. Physio could be really helpful. My daughter started having physio at 6 months, so they can start early!
Good luck.

cp with one limb affected is quite rare - monoplegia i think?
obv you have consulted dr google lol, and will be aware that muscle tone issues (ie in this case spasticity) can point to cp...

it sounds as though comm paed will refer to physio, and eventually occupational therapy, so there will be lots of appointments coming up.

muscle tone can change quite a lot though, so however he presents now may be completely different in a year or two - dd2 spent her first year with her arms rigid, hands wedged under her chin, thumb in palm, unable to 'unbend' lol, and she was diagnosed with spastic quad cp just before her 2nd birthday. she's five now and her muscle tone is really quite low - the years and years of physio we spent trying to get her to open her hands and unbend must have paid off

...or it might be something completely different - just thought as dr google had informed you of the cp possibility i'd chuck in my ha'porth

try not to worry, wait for the comm paed referral, and be aware that things can change over time in any case.

Thanks for your replies, Have been chasing the referal up and currently waiting for them to get back. its 3 months since he was seen and im starting to get a little peed of with them!!!
I think CP is a long shot and doubt it is that as it is quite mild albeit still there.
But thank you for your advice and experience, its good to know what lines we now need to go down and what will happen next.

whilst you are waiting - try lots of 'midline' stuff - getting him to bring his hands to the mid line - using a ball or an object that needs two hands to hold is good, and you can also try putting really interesting things on his weaker side to emcourage reaching and grasping with the weaker arm/ hand. if he's anything like dd2 he will work out all sorts of contortions to be able to get to it with the 'good' hand lol, but if this happens you can hold the good one gently (but firmly lol) to 'encourage' use of the other one...
of course, you might have been doing all this already
other things we tried - drums to tap with both hands (elc do a flashy musical one that just needs a tap and off it goes), lightweight rattles or musical instruments in both hands, and rolling gently on a gym ball - interestingly, we discovered that the high tone in dd2's limbs was almost certainly due to low tone in her trunk - because her core wasn't stable, her limbs were very tight where she was literally trying to hold herself together lol - so you could trying giving really firm trunk support and see if that helps... obviously they will check all these things, and none of it will do any harm in the meantime...

hope your referral comes through soon x

Our DS was very much a one handed baby (seems to be levelling up a bit now ) but we still work hard on mid-line stuff. DS still not too sure where it is!
A balloon is a firm fave of his. He can't see very well, so he must like how it feels/sounds.
He also has a bell rattle and a talking hand held mirror which he will hold with both hands and has recently started passing between the two! The talking mirror does say 'Don't you just love being a princess!' but he obviously does, coz he squeals with delight at it .
Our physio advised us that it was OK to restrain the 'bad' arm as long as its for short periods only. While he was small, we used to swaddle him leaving only his weak arm free. Now he is bigger, why lie him on his stronger side, leaving his (now slightly) weaker arm free.
Another tip I read and remembered, but haven't used (yet!) is to put his chocolate buttons on his tray on the weaker side. I'm holding that one in reserve!

what was the birth like? I am wondering about brachial plexus paralysis. My eldest son has erbs palsy due to birth injury.

ah, the old choc buttons ploy

Yes it was probably you who told me! Can't think why it stuck in my mind........mmmmm, chocolate..........

The birth was ok (although on the orthopaedics report he said labour was rather prolonged ) 8 hrs of induced labour due to pre-eclampsia. he had pooed inside was back too back and head was tucked under, 10 hrs after birth was on SCBU due to loud stridor (laryngo-malacia) was discharged after 4 days and lm now gone.

Ask them specifically if it could be a brachial plexus injury. Ask for tests. It doesn't hurt to rule it out.

ok thanks for that QOG, have never heard of it before, what is it? whats the symptoms?

paralysis of arm is the big one
Really it varies so much, depending on severity of injury and which nerves have been damaged.

It can include -
hand bent in 'waiters tip'
can't move elbow
can't raise arm above head, or straight out
unable to use arm or hand - or weakness when using.
arm can appear smaller or colder than other arm.
they can get horners (drooping eye) or torticollis - where they turn away from the affected arm
balance is off
can't crawl because arm can't support them - if severe injury
pins and needles can happen which can be so severe they chew themselves! Not always, depends on injury, but it happened to my son and he has scars on his hand.

It's nerve damage. It can happen if the shoulder gets stuck in the birth canal, if they pull on the head.

That's what happened in my case. After a VERY long labour, my son got stuck (shoulder dystocia). They then decided it would be a good idea to TUG his head and bang. Erbs Palsy.

click here
and here

Sorry to hear your experience, how is your son now, has he recovered well?
Thank you for that info, its something we hadnt thought of but breifly looking into it does make sense. He was sligtly to the side on birth although i dont recall a lot of tugging (was kind of out of it) DH says they did pull a little.
Do you happen to know if we can get hold of copies of the birth notes to look into it ourselves or is it a matter of asking for tests?

Yes you can request your notes, but tbh, you couldn't really diagnose it yourselves. You'd need a referral.

My son is under the royal national orthopaedic hospital. He had an x-ray after birth to rule out a broken collar bone and later had tests which involved, basically, running electricity through him (don't panic, it doesn't hurt really and it causes no problems and it is invaluable in determining the level of damage to their nerves - in ds case - severe) and he's had 2 operations but they say there's no point doing any more (unless some damage occurs) because he's regained all the function he's ever going to have.

He functions, but his arm is permanantly damamged. Mostly he's found other ways to do stuff, he's adapted. There are things he cannot and never will be able to do, - like play rugby or bat for England or lift a box down from over his head but he's got good hand function.

In my experience, many doctors dismiss parental concerns, so don't be surprised if the instant reaction is along the lines of go away and don't be silly . Now, I am not saying at all, that your son has erbs - I can't possibly diagnose that and I don't want to come across like I am trying to - but, from your description, I really think it is something you need to have ruled out by tests, and not by the doctor telling you they don't need to look into it

Do let me know how you get on, won't you?

Thank you for your information, its something we hadnt thought of but at least its now something we can look into, i dont beleive for one minute you are saying this is what my sone has, you are just giving good advice which is much appreciated .
Once we get the referal and start the process i will certainly keep u posted.
Many thanks agian x

I am 28 y/o and was born with Erb's Palsy. I had it so severe in my left arm/hand that I chewed my hand to the bone it areas (my mom told me the stories...I was just a teething baby). My mom was so scared! My mom had no help or support but figured out how to use velcro to keep me from chewing more. I have scar marks from that. I am now just learning about what I have and wonder what kind of surgeries are out there for me. I also wonder about people going through lawsuits because of Erb's Palsy.

Just a bit of an update and rant.....after a bit of chasing it up, since he was seen back in november by the orthopaedic, he was referred to the consultant peadiatriton, who felt it could be dealt with in the community so he reffered him to the comm peadiatriton, she thinks its nothing to do with her so he has been referred back to orthopaedic dr, arrgghhhh... when i calledhis sec up 'she didnt know anything about it' so know we are back to start and have just been given another date to see original dr!!!!!

His arm sounds a lot like my ds who has mild hemiplegia. All you might notice with his leg is that it is stiff if you lie him on his back and stretch his hamstrings. At least that is the case with my ds who can stand very nicely with one hand support (he is 12 months)although he curls his toes.

How is he sitting? My ds is just about sitting now but cannot get into sitting yet. Not sitting well can be an indication of stiffness and balance issues.

What you need is a paediatric physio. Push your gp or your hv can refer too!

Update - we have been back to the orthopeaic and he has now referred DS to a consulatant peadiatric nurologist to be investigated futher.
He said it could be a number of things, prob not mucle damage, could be damage to brain or nerve in his neck at birth!!
Re erbs palsy - as soon as he mentioned the nerves in his neck i asked if it could be erbs palsy but he said unlikley because his arm isnt pointing inwards (but its still nerve damage though, isnt it?)is there a difference between erbs and another kind of nerve damage?
anyhow, we now have to wait for the referal to come through, and get the ball rolling. They warned us he may have to have scans ect and if the case will have to be put to sleep. but at least we are getting somewhere.

Sorry to repeat myself (also have a thread on here re erbs palsey).

At the moment we are still no futher on, after being refferd to a afew drs (although not seen!!!!!!!!!) we have now been referred on to the com peadiatrition, who we should of seen in the begining!!! .

Anyway as the waiting is playing havoc with my mind the more i look into it the more something like mild hemiplegia keeps cropping up, Madmouse are you on here, would love to pick your knowledge .