Cerebral Palsy or something else??

Hi. My daughter, who will be 2 on March 16th, is developmentally delayed. According to her therapist, her gross and fine motor skills are about that of a one year old, her speech is comparative to a 10 month old and her cognitive development is only 7 months. Her neurologist diagnosed her with very mild cerebral palsy. The only test he did was a MRI, which showed some abnormalties but nothing serious, accoriding to him. The problem is, I don't feel like CP fits her symptoms. From what I understand, CP affects mainly motor skills. While she is behind in that area, it's not her biggest problem. She doesn't understand words AT ALL. She can't ask for what she wants. She doesn't seem to feel pain the way normal kids do. She bites herself when shes upset. She bites us to get our attention. She doesn't interact with other people the way a normal 2 year old, or even 1 year old, does. She makes eye contact and LOVES everyone. Whether she knows you or not. Does this sound like CP to anyone else?

Hi Kris,
Sorry to bring bad news but YES it is cerebral palsy.
Cerebral Palsy is not only about motor delays. Because it is caused by a brain injury it can affect other centers in the brain. Centers that are responsible for motor skills, behavior, speech,comprehension, mental ability, balance..and more.
I have never seen a child with CP who had ONLY motor delays..unfortunately it comes with a big package.
Since your child is young, her brain is still very flexible, and capable of re-learning those skills, or just enhancing those that she lost, or having hard times keeping up.
Our brain is like a sponge, and with therapy she can catch up with these delays.
I would beleive that her biting is a sign of frustration..she cannot communicate, and because of the inability of expressing herself can result in this behavior..(my second guess would be mental delay, and autism)
I would strongly suggest for you to start very very intense therapy, PT OT ST..even if doctors say it is mild..
There are standard tests for delays, and since she is young, the gap is not to significant between her abilities and her peers.
But as time goes by, my experience is unfortunately is that the gap grows..
I am a conductor-teacher, doing conductive education with children who have CP. I had children that were put in wheelchairs by the time they were 2 years old.
With conductive education in 2-3 years (4-5 hours intense therapy) these children were able to walk, and went to regular school.
Please don't close your eyes, and disregard the urgency of this matter..do every therapy that you possibly can..the best thing that can happen is that your child's cp turns out to be very mild, and because of your awareness she is back on track, and living a full life.
If you have any questions please e-mail me to anci_toth@yahoo.co.uk
Best wishes,
Andrea

I'm sorry to hear about this mom but this may be very easy to solve. You must be very frustrated. It sounds like it may be from nutritional deficiencies in her diet. Many additives in the foods can cause these symptoms. You need to do some reading. Go to msg.org and this will start you in figuring out if it is just what your daughter is eating thats causing this disorder. I know of other kids with behavior issues and with just a change in diet the problems go away. They also have a list of other food additives you can research. Good luck!