Birth weight and gestational age in children with cerebral palsy or seizure disorders
J. H. Ellenberg and K. B. Nelson
Birth weight and gestational age of single-born children with cerebral
palsy (CP) and those with seizure disorders were compared with norms for
40,000 single-born children in the same prospectively identified
population. Low birth-weight and short gestation were important risk
factors for CP, but these characteristics were uncommon, and the majority
of children with CP were of normal birth weight and term gestational age.
Preterm children with CP by age 7 years tended to have been even smaller at
birth than was appropriate for their short gestions. Among term infants
with later CP, the birth weights of the majority were appropriate for
dates, but a subgroup were noticeably small for dates at term. Low birth
weight, preterm birth, and smallness for dates at term were not
significantly related to the risk of seizure disorders in children free of
CP.
