Erb’s Palsy Risk Factors

Out of every 1,000 babies, one of them will have Erb’s palsy. Sometimes, people have mistakenly called this cerebral palsy, but the two have no connection. Some of the symptoms that your child has include paralysis and potential nerve damage. Typically, this condition happens when the child suffers damage to the brachial plexus nerves from overstretching them. This stretching will especially happen to one side, and most often, Erb’s palsy only seems to affect one side of the body.

Erb's Palsy

Delayed Development

Let’s say that a child suffered damage to his brachial plexus nerves, the shoulder’s nerves. This can cause slowed development and meeting pediatric milestones. In some cases, it could even result in permanent damage to the child to not function properly. You might recognize some of the symptoms of the condition at birth. If a child suffers paralysis, it will range anywhere from partial paralysis to complete paralysis. No matter what, you should get this treated as soon as possible because a failure to treat it can lead to long-term paralysis.

What Increases the Risk?

Erb’s palsy risk factors will mean that something increases the chances that your child will have this birth injury. You have a few things that spike the risk. For example, if your child develops shoulder dystocia, he will have three times the likelihood of developing other conditions like Erb’s palsy. Shoulder dystocia happens when the child’s head comes out of the mother, but both shoulders can be trapped behind the mother’s pelvis. This can lead to some dangerous complications. You have other things that can potentially increase the risk to your child, such as:

  • Gestational diabetes
  • Larger birth weight
  • High maternal weight gain
  • Extraction tools of a delivery
  • The second stage of labor lasts longer than an hour

Any excessive pulling on the shoulders can lead to a damaging of the brachial plexus nerves. If the nerves get damaged, it can lead to a birth disorder. Different things can put your child at risk of this condition. These are some of the risk factors of Erb’s palsy that you may want to be aware of.

Treating the Child

When it comes to this condition, you have a couple of different ways that the doctor might treat your child that include:

  • Physical therapy
  • Surgery
  • Occupational therapy

In most cases, doctors will try everything else before choosing surgery unless they see that the child has a severe case that needs immediate surgical intervention to help. Normally, they conduct surgery between three months to six months because it is the most effective. In some cases, the doctor might choose to combine all three of the forms of treatment.

In general, the prognosis for this condition looks reasonably good. Most children recover from this condition without any lasting effects, but this also depends on the severity.

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