[balletmum]

Hi,
I'm hoping someone can give me information. I have recently agreed to foster a 4 year old girl. She has never had a medical and has lived with Mum and brothers in a neglectful home.
She walks with a very unsteady gait, knees seem to touch part of the time and feet are usually apart. She stumbles often and seems to trip over fresh air!. Her speech is very poor and she is very hard to understand. Also she is still in diapers fulltime and although she is willing to sit on the toilet, she does not seem to feel when she needs to go.
Based on all this I am wondering if it could be Cerebral Palsy?
Any ideas on how to toilet-train her would be great!!!
cheers,
Balletmum

[SuzBerg]

Balletmum - Let me preface this by saying I DON'T know much about CP, it has been mentioned a few times as a diagnosis for my daughter and in her file somewhere it says "mild CP". Because she has a pacemaker they can not do an MRI to make a definitive diagnosis, but she does have some tendencies (very mild) towards it - according to our orthopedist and pediatrician.

Some of the symptoms (falling a lot, wide gait, had a speech delay etc) you describe, my daughter has. But those same symptoms could be caused by lots of different things (neglect, health issues, cp, etc). I would reccommend talking to her pediatrician about your concerns.

Best Wishes - Suz