You are eagerly anticipating the birth of your child. You have done everything through the pregnancy to protect your unborn baby, and now the big day has arrived: your baby is born. The birth was a little traumatic, but you made it through. After a few days’ rest you take your baby home.

As your infant grows you start to notice that something isn’t right. When your friends’ babies start rolling over, your baby is not quite ready. As the months progress, your baby continues to fall behind his peers. Of course, like any good parent, you are concerned. You take your baby to the pediatrician. After a few tests you receive the diagnosis that your baby has ataxic cerebral palsy.

After you get over the shock, the questions start pouring in. What is ataxic cerebral palsy? How did your baby get it? What can you do about it? These are all important questions that need to be addressed.

Cerebral palsy refers to injuries that occur to a child’s brain at birth or shortly after. Ataxic cerebral palsy is a form of cerebral palsy caused by an injury to the cerebellum, which is the part of the brain that affects balance and equilibrium. Children with this form of cerebral palsy will have lower levels of muscle tone.

Medically speaking, muscle tone is the amount of resistance to movement that a muscle has. Children with ataxic cerebral palsy will have difficulty controlling their muscles. When a child has this form of cerebral palsy, he or she has shaky muscles, and is very unsteady in his or her movements. Also, children will not have a sense of balance and will have difficulty with depth perception. Often, children with ataxic cerebral palsy have movements similar to elderly people, with the tremors and muscle weakness associated with aging. These kids walk with their legs spread far apart, and are unsteady when they walk.

The good news about ataxic cerebral palsy is that it usually is not accompanied by mental disabilities, as is associated with other forms of the disease. Also, this is the most rare type of cerebral palsy. Only around five to ten percent of children that are affected with cerebral palsy have ataxic cerebral palsy.

If your child is diagnosed with ataxic cerebral palsy, you are likely wondering what you can do about it. The first thing that a parent should do for the child with this problem is to seek medical care. Through physical and cognitive therapy, these children can learn to control their muscle movements and have an excellent quality of life.

After seeking the proper medical care, you need to talk to a lawyer. The medical care and long term concerns you are going to face as a result of having a child with ataxic cerebral palsy are going to be great. Your child may need special crutches or even a wheelchair to help with mobility as they develop. Learning to walk is difficult for these kids, and these devices help immensely, but they are expensive. Having a lawyer working with you will help you receive compensation for the damages caused to your child.

Why do you deserve compensation when you have a child with ataxic cerebral palsy? Most of the time, ataxic cerebral palsy is caused by an injury to your baby’s head during birth. While it can sometimes be caused by a pregnancy-related complication, the most common cause is medical malpractice, such as a baby not receiving needed oxygen after birth, or injury from a forceps delivery. If the cerebral palsy is caused by medical malpractice, an attorney will help you fight for the compensation that you deserve. You can use this money to help pay for your child’s medical therapy and other treatments, as well as any devices your child needs to have an excellent quality of life.