Babies with hypotonia will feel floppier than other babies. Children with hypotonia may have increased flexibility, poor posture, get tired easily and have delays in reaching motor milestones like sitting, crawling or walking.
Or a baby with low muscle tone might take a longer time to crawl. With children, a child with low muscle tone will present with decreased endurance for playtime, sports, or school, or may sit with poor posture.
Children diagnosed with hypotonia may have delayed developmental milestones that affect their motor skills, including: Sitting upright. Crawling. Walking.
Walking is often delayed
Hypermobile and low tone infants tend to walk a few months later than usual, sometimes as late as 18-20 months. However, unless the infant has another disorder as well, hypermobile babies eventually walk independently.
Abstract. Children with hypotonia of the muscles near the cervical spine have reduced head control and are unable to maintain an upright head posture. These children often use an external head support to hold their heads upright.
Infants with hypotonia have a floppy quality or “rag doll” appearance because their arms and legs hang by their sides and they have little or no head control. Other symptoms of hypotonia include problems with mobility and posture, breathing and speech difficulties, ligament and joint laxity, and poor reflexes.
Hypotonia, or poor muscle tone, is usually detected at birth or during infancy. It's sometimes called floppy muscle syndrome. If your infant has hypotonia, they may appear limp at birth and not be able to keep their knees and elbows bent. Many different diseases and disorders cause the symptoms of hypotonia.
Children with hypotonia may have increased flexibility, poor posture, get tired easily and have delays in reaching motor milestones like sitting, crawling or walking.
Swimming is supposed to be the best exercise, as it exercises all muscles without risking damaging joints (all hypotonic people are more at risk of bending their joints the wrong way, which is why hypermobility often goes along with hypotonia).
Most babies start to crawl between 6 and 12 months. But there is a wide range of what's “normal” when it comes to reaching developmental milestones—just because your daughter hasn't crawled by 8 months doesn't mean that there is something wrong with her.
Hypotonia is defined as decreased muscle tone or floppiness with varying degrees of progression. It occurs in multiple neuromuscular, metabolic and genetic disorders and can be a sign of global developmental delay, that may pre-dispose to a cognitive disability (18).
Some hypotonias are not progressive and are of an unknown origin, a condition known as benign congenital hypotonia. Central nervous system function and intelligence in children is normal. Children with benign congenital hypotonia may not experience developmental delay.
Hypotonia may be a sign of a problem anywhere along the pathway that controls muscle movement. Causes may include: Brain damage, due to lack of oxygen before or right after birth, or problems with brain formation. Disorders of the muscles, such as muscular dystrophy.
Neonatal hypotonia is a common event in neonatal period. A majority of diagnosis is obtained by history and physical examination. Neuroimaging, genetic and metabolic tests were also important in diagnosis. Genetic, syndromic–nonsyndromic, and metabolic disorders were the most causes of neonatal hypotonia.
Low muscle tone can also affect potty training. After all, the ability to sense when the bladder is filling up, to clench the muscles that hold urine in, and to sit on a toilet and squeeze all require abdominal strength.
In some cases, delayed crawling can be a sign that a child is at risk for slower motor development. But it's also normal for babies to skip crawling altogether – adopting other ways of moving from place to place. Babies aren't developmentally “programmed” to crawl.
Generally, 5 to 8 percent survive beyond one year and even fewer past 18 months [6].
Hypotonia doesn't affect intelligence. But it may delay development of large-muscle movement and coordination (gross motor skills). In benign congenital hypotonia, results of tests on the child's muscles and brain are normal.
Genetic causes of hypotonia
Prader-Willi syndrome is a rare genetic disease that causes restricted growth and learning difficulties. Tay-Sachs disease is another rare and fatal genetic disorder that causes progressive damage to the nervous system.
The problem with low tone kids is that their core muscles don't support them well. This can cause problems with sitting still and focusing at school, coordination problems with sports, and more.
A survey of parents of children with hypotonia highlighted three outcome groups: those with transient impairments, those with minimal impairments, and those with global impairments. The latter two groups had residual impairments in motor coordination, language, and learning.
Hypotonia, or low muscle tone, is common in autistic children. Some studies have shown that over 50% of children with ASD experienced hypotonia. Because of its prevalence among autistic children, hypotonia often serves as an early indicator that your child may fall on the autism spectrum.
The most common cause of cerebral palsy that leads to hypotonia is caused by damage to the cerebellum of the brain. The cerebellum is responsible for receiving messages from the spinal cord and other areas of the brain to control motor movement.
If you have too much muscle tone, your movements will be robotic because you're unable to relax your muscles and you have limited flexibility. Children with hypertonia have poor balance, trouble walking, difficulty reaching and grabbing objects, and sometimes they need help eating.
Most 10-month-olds can crawl well on their hands and knees, but don't worry if your baby is not crawling just yet. Some babies never learn to crawl; they just move straight on to walking. By now, your baby is probably sitting confidently and may be able to walk around while holding onto furniture (called 'cruising').