Pediatric hypotonia (floppy muscle syndrome)
Hypotonia (hy·po·to·nia) means low muscle tone due to the progressive loss of muscle strength over time.
What is pediatric hypotonia (floppy muscle syndrome)?
Hypotonia, also called floppy muscle syndrome, is a condition that involves the progressive loss of muscle tone over time. Some infants (birth to 1 year) are born with hypotonia, and some children develop hypotonia as a symptom of another condition.
What are the signs and symptoms of pediatric hypotonia (floppy muscle syndrome)?
- Delayed fine motor skills in children, such as grasping a crayon
- Delayed gross motor skills in infants, such as holding up head, sitting or crawling
- Feeding problems, such as trouble sucking or chewing
- Floppy muscles
- Frequent hip, jaw and neck dislocation
- Lack of head control as an infant
- Shallow breathing
- Speech delay and speech problems
What are the causes of pediatric hypotonia (floppy muscle syndrome)?
- Brain injury
- Cerebral palsy (CP)
- Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease
- Connective tissue disorders
- Down’s syndrome
- Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
- Encephalitis
- Hypothyroidism (congenital)
- Marfan syndrome
- Meningitis
- Muscular dystrophy
- Prader-Willi syndrome
- Prematurity
- Spinal cord injury
- Spinal muscular atrophy
- Tay-Sachs
