Brain Atrophy??? does anyone know about this?

Hi

A close friend of mine had a baby about 2and a half months ago and she was born with a small head (compared to her body) and was told that she has Brian atrophy. The reason i'm asking is basically they have no idea what to expect apparently she may never be able to walk .
Although i beg to differ as she is the most ACTIVE newborn i have ever seen , already she has sat herself up and when she was only 3 weeks she lifted her own head. She is also extremely alert . To me it's a sign for everyone to stay positive . But her parents are still very upset about what they may have to face. So if anyone has some sort of experiences with this please let me know .

Thanks heaps !

Lana

Hi Lana,

I just wanted to say that my neice has a small head. It was very noticable. In fact her doctors were very concerned about it. They did every test under the sun, for every condition possible and found nothing. Yes Rebecca is on the slower range when it came to crawling, walking, eating solids, getting her teeth etc, but hey so is my Alana and many other babies, who have nothing wrong with them. Her head seems to be catching up to her body, as when I saw her a few weeks ago at 17 months, her head looked normal to me. Her doctors have now concluded there is nothing wrong.

Tell your friend that sure she should take their advise and comments seriously, but it does not necessarily mean there is anything wrong.

Thanks for the advice Lara

I myself don't think that she will be dramatically different from other children , But my Friend is extremely depressed about it and the father wont bond with her which is sad he also makes jokes about her appearance ie: when someone says "what a cute baby" he says "ya reckon! your joking" .She is tiny all over but shes very normal as in baby terms . She has to see a specialist every 6 weeks and then my friend said they were just waiting to see which part of her brain is "missing" . It's a really sad situation as i think that they should take each day as it comes not arguing about the mother having to stay at home with her because she 's going to be SEVERELY disabled . I hope she proves them wrong , for not having faith in her. Poor little mite , People like me would be ecstatic just to have her.

Lana

P.s Good choice in the name of your daughter !! LOL

It can be really hard when doctors give you bad news about your child. I know with Alana when she was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis, I thought my world had ended. But I just had to suck it up, as I was not going to be any good to Alana.

I hope your friend realises, as hard as it maybe, that she needs to look on the positive side also as this will drag her down, be no good for bub and could be awful for her relationship with her husband. Her husband should also stop hiding behind cruel comments. He is sad about the outcome and his way of dealing with it is to detach himself from bub. He will regret that, especially if it turn out that there is nothing wrong.

I hope she does prove them wrong Lana.

Alanah, so sorry to hear that your friends daughter is not well.

With an atrophy she may be ok now, but it's actually a wasting thing - ie when someone is in a coma physios work their muscles to stop them atrophying. In Alzehiemers (sp?) disease, the brain atrophies which causes the memory loss etc to become worse.

I hope the Drs are wrong.