Children with benign congenital hypotonia may not experience developmental delay. Some children acquire gross motor skills (sitting, walking, running, jumping) more slowly than most.
Hypotonia, as a symptom, isn't a disability, but the underlying diagnosis could be a disability. Hypotonia doesn't affect a person's intellectual abilities.
Hypotonia can result from damage to the brain, spinal cord, nerves, or muscles. Hypotonia does not affect intellect. The opposite of hypotonia is hypertonia.
Although hypotonia can make activities associated with learning (such as writing) more difficult, it does NOT affect a child's mind.
Children and babies with hypotonia often need to put in more effort to move properly, have a hard time maintaining posture and have delays in motor, feeding and verbal skills. Hypotonia can be caused by issues with the muscles or nerves, but often the cause is unknown.
Will my child ever walk? Although some severe cases of hypotonia confine people to wheelchairs for their entire life, the majority of kids learn to walk. It will simply be on their own schedule.
Many children with High-Functioning Autism (HFA) and Asperger's (AS) have a comorbid condition called Hypotonia, which is sometimes referred to as "floppiness." This is because the muscles are meant to help support the skeletal system and are designed to prevent certain kinds of motion.
Generally, 5 to 8 percent survive beyond one year and even fewer past 18 months [6].
Hypotonia is caused by problems with the nervous system. These problems can occur for different reasons. General causes can include: Trauma.
Low muscle tone is used to describe muscles that are floppy, which is also known as hypotonia. Children with low muscle tone may need to put in more effort to get their muscles moving properly when they are doing an activity. They may also have difficulty maintaining good posture when sitting or standing.
Hypotonia is a decreased level of muscle tone. Kids on this end of the spectrum are described as limp and floppy. Their muscles are too relaxed. This can impact everything from walking to eating to potty training.
PPP2R5D-related intellectual disability is a neurological disorder characterized by moderate to severe developmental delay and intellectual disability. Affected individuals have weak muscle tone (hypotonia); delayed development of motor skills, such as sitting, standing, and walking; and delayed speech development.
Low muscle tone is commonly seen in children with autism. However, since ASD is a spectrum, their physical presentation can vary drastically from having increased tone which is causing the tip-toe walking, to decreased tone and walking either with flattened feet or compensating by going up onto their tiptoes to walk.
Hypotonic is a type of cerebral palsy caused by damage to the cerebellum of the brain during childbirth. This brain damage can result in floppy muscles, excessive flexibility, issues with stability, and developmental delays.
Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) commonly accompanies ADHD [2] , and features problems of balance and motor coordination and of related factors of low muscle tone and ligament laxity that are seen in postural malalignments such as a rounded upper spine and arched lower spine, hyperextended knees, and low- ...
Use big movement/heavy work activities such as wheel-barrow, bear, crab, and hill walking. Practice jumping activities such as double leg jump, frog jump, and side jumps. Occupational and physical therapy treatment to strengthen and improve motor planning will help the child perform age appropriate skills.
However, the term 'benign congenital hypotonia' is still used to describe children with mild hypotonia who appear to have a favourable outcome and in whom no other diagnosis can at this stage be made.
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.
Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause serious developmental regression, hypotonia and cerebral atrophy in infants.
The genetic approach to hypotonia includes knowledge of presenting signs/symptoms of some of the most common inheritable disorders and the appropriate diagnostic tools that are available (molecular and biochemical testing) (Table).
“If a child is weak as well as hypotonic from a central cause, his face is less animated than, for example, a child with spinal muscular atrophy, but in children with congenital myopathies, their faces may look unresponsive but the children are not,” Crawford said.
Supplements
Carnitine (L- or acetyl-L-carnitine): low muscle tone in children typically presents with low carnitine levels in their blood. R-Alpha Lipoic: R-Alpha lipoic is an antioxidant that makes vitamins C and E last longer and therefore increases their benefits to your child.