do CP babies tend to cry more than others?

My son has athetoid CP (we knew from very soon after birth) and I have to say that he cried almost non stop for months...it was awful AND he slept very badly too. Looking back I think he was probably pretty uncomfortable a lot of the time. What worked best for him was not slow walking but holding him upright (front sling was good) and then jogging on the spot! I kid you not, as long as we made sure his head could not flop about he would actually fall asleep better whilst being fairly vigorously moved about...we often had to sort of woggle his thigh through the bars of his cot and that helped too. Again with knoweldge and hindsight almost certainly the vigorous movement was helping break lots of involuntary muscle spasms (esp in hips) ans do helped him to relax. But you have my sympathy!

That's so lovely to hear, I worry that jack won't be happy with the situation. As long as he's happy I'll be happy. I worry that one day he may tell me he hates his life or ask why it happened to him, I really dread it. I really hope he has a happy future. I wanna make sure he has lots of friends in his situation too, I can't bare him being lonely.

Oh gosh yes - my son Tom screamed his way through his entire first year. He would cry so much that he would be wet through with sweat and his back would arch so much that just the back of his head and the heels of his feet were touching the ground. He particularly hated being in the car seat so travelling anywhere was just SO traumatic. We didn't know why until he was diagnosed at just over a year old - he was initially diagnosed with colic, although this did not explain why he was so stiff that we couldn't bend him nor why his physical development was so far behind his twin sister.

Once we knew Tom had CP it became easier to deal with because we could start to learn ways in which we could help him break his tone - bending his knees or his ankles used to help stop the pattern of high tone going all the way through his body and causing pain.

Tom had terrible problems with trapped wind back then - we used to hear great bubbles of air in him and we hear him gulping air when he fed but his muscles inside are so tight he could never burp it out again. We used to hold him under the arms with his legs dangling free to try to give the air an exit route straight up and used to spend hours rubbing and patting to try to help him get his wind out. When we realised he had CP and his co-ordination of sucking & swallowing was affected we started using a thickener in his milk to slow the flow down he could better manage swallowing his fluids without chugging lots of air that was the point things suddenly turned around. At about 16 months he suddenly became a different boy - he just changed almost overnight and at almost 3 he is almost always a jolly little bloke with a real zest for life.

We have also got other children - Tom has a twin sister and we have a 5 year old too. I used to worry so much at how little attention I could give the girls when Tom was in such distress but I can see now that it has done no long-term harm and I have a wonderful relationship with all 3 of my kids and they love their brother very much.

I shall be thinking of you and hoping that you find the magic key to helping your little one get through this. I used to wear Tom in a front sling at try to get things done while I was wearing him (it never stopped him screamin though!) I remember trying to load the dishwasher while trying not to bend down so far that he fell out of the sling - it was not an easy time but I can look back on it now with great pride that I survived it and that I am raising three happy, bright and gorgeous children.

Maria xxx