Microcephaly: Symptoms, Cause and Treatment

What is Microcephaly?

Microcephaly is a circumstance which is occurred from the birth of the baby in which the babies head is so small from normal head and it can cause to the mental retardation sometimes. Microcephaly is a mixture of two word i.e. micro means small and cephaly means head thus it describes small head of the baby.

Causes of Microcephaly

• It may relates to the hereditary problems or it may occur due to the contact with harmful substances at the time of fetal growth.

followings are some reasons which may cause the problem of abnormal head-

• Contact to dangerous chemicals
• Contact to radiation
• Absence of the vitamins in the food and drinks
• Using illegal drugs and alcohol
• It may also occur because of other health problem or it may caused by autosomal recessive or an autosomal dominant gene.
• Sometime it may occur because of some brain injury.

Symptoms of Microcephaly

• The common symptoms of microcephaly is very small head of the baby.
• Seizures
• Poor feeding
• Delay in growth
• High-pitched cry
• Mental retardation

Treatment of Microcephaly

Children with normal development and if no symptoms are occurred no need to treat them. Treatment is depends on the symptoms. Those who have symptoms like speech problem and mental retardation can be treat with special education. Physical and occupational therapy should be used to minimized dysfunction. Medication are useful for seizures, hyperactivity and other symptoms.

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