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I learned to see my child, not for what he can and cannot do, but for who he is.
himself a cookie or communicate using words. This is because Nathan has cerebral palsy.
While not a single condition in and of itself, cerebral palsy is a group of problems that affect a person ' s body movement and posture. Cerebral palsy is the most common childhood disability and is responsible for a high percentage of lasting disability in children. Recent research poses that 1 in 278 children globally has this condition.
The disorder is related to brain injury in utero, at birth or in the early stages of life( between zero and three years of age). While the exact cause of cerebral palsy can ' t always be pinpointed, some possible causes include premature birth, problems after birth, lack of proper in utero nutrition, a serious head injury or infection that could harm the brain or a genetic condition that affect ' s brain growth and formation. In Nathan’ s case, his infraction was caused after birth. He was diagnosed with congenital diaphragmatic hernia which required major surgery to correct the breach. He underwent surgery at just 2 days old. Ten days post-surgery he suddenly developed severe jaundice with hyperbilirubinemia( abnormally high amounts of bile pigment( bilirubin) in the blood) of 408. Though this was corrected within twenty-four hours by phototherapy, it is believed that the damage was done to his young brain cells in the motor cortex area of his brain, which controls movement.
Nathan spent 24 days in the