What to do if a child has a spinal cord injury

If a child's spinal cord injury is serious, it is basically a death sentence, because it can easily cause paralysis and deprive the child of the right to exercise. Therefore, it is an extremely dangerous disease among children. The complications caused by it include muscle atrophy and muscle weakness. Children in their prime years will suffer such great harm. Therefore, medical experts are now actively researching ways to completely cure this disease and give children a healthy childhood.

Children with spinal cord injuries can use their working muscles to complete activities that they cannot normally do to compensate for the loss of function of their muscles. For example, patients with C5 injuries can use shoulder abduction and external rotation to extend the elbow through gravity. Selective stretching of specific muscle groups is important for children with spinal cord injury to complete functional tasks, such as stretching the hamstrings to raise the straight legs in the supine position to nearly 120°, which is conducive to transfer activities and wearing socks, shoes and knee-ankle-foot braces.

Stretching the anterior pectoral muscles allows the shoulder joint to fully extend backward, which is beneficial for movement transfer in bed and working in a wheelchair. Stretching the hip and ankle flexors is important for walking swing and standing stability. Perform muscle massage and stretching regularly every day, combined with acupuncture and physical therapy. Develop a strength training plan. Train daily according to the plan and evaluate strength progress daily.

Training in activities of daily living is particularly important for quadriplegic patients with varying degrees of trunk and upper limb impairments. Self-care activities such as eating, washing, dressing, and moving patients in bed can be completed independently, and they can gradually transition from bed to wheelchair.

Therefore, once a child gets this disease, parents should not give up on their children, because parents are the child's greatest psychological support. So what parents should do is to actively take their children to see a doctor, answer the doctor's questions, cooperate with the doctor's treatment plan, and at the same time learn to encourage and guide their children's psychology and help them out of difficulties. This is the responsibility of every parent.