Cerebral Palsy Life Expectancy
For Our Cerebral Palsy Child

The cerebral palsy life expectancy is shorter than the life expectancy of neuro-typical children.

According to the National Institutes of Health, before the mid-twentieth century, few children with cerebral palsy survived to adulthood. Click here for more on the history of cerebral palsy.

Now, because of improvements in medical care, rehabilitation, and adaptive technologies, the vast majority of children with cerebral palsy will live into their adult years.

As you might expect, the life expectancy of cerebral palsy children correlates to the severity of their brain injury and disabilities.

Children with more severe brain injury and therefore less mobility and function, typically live shorter lives. One study estimates that approximately half of those with severe cerebral palsy will live to be 20. Click here to learn about the different types of cerebral palsy.

Children who are unable to roll or sit have the shortest life expectancy. As function and mobility increase, so does the expected cerebral palsy life expectancy. The life expectancy for mobile, mild cerebral palsy children even approaches that of normal children.

With effective therapies, early intervention, techniques, and improved care, cerebral palsy life expectancy for children across the cerebral palsy spectrum is increasing.

As parents of a severely disabled cerebral palsy child, we were worried about our son's life expectancy. Our doctors were not optimistic.

We were told there was nothing that could possibly be done for our son to help him. He was deemed failure to thrive cerebral palsy. Take him home and just love him, we were told.

Some have suggested that the prognosis given by the medical community for children with cerebral palsy is often overly pessimistic. Perhaps doctors don't want to give what they consider to be false hope.

I don't know, but in many ways, I think this type of prognosis can be self-fulfilling. If we took our son home and did nothing (since we were told nothing could be done), I am sure our son would have withered and died from lack of stimulation.

Instead, we searched for ways to help our helpless child.

The way to increase the cerebral palsy life expectancy for your child is to help him or her get better. Our son who was a failure to thrive child was not supposed to do anything, but he is thriving now.

We are striving to make him well - including having a long, full, happy life.

We still have a long road ahead of us, but we have found hope for his future.

You can find hope for your child as well.

To learn more about Cerebral Palsy, please investigate the following links:

Click here for the Cerebral Palsy Guide

Click here for Cerebral Palsy Diagnosis

Click here for Cerebral Palsy Causes

Click here for Cerebral Palsy Symptoms

Click here for Cerebral Palsy Prognosis

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