Misty Campbell is parent of child with complex disabilities who wrote this book as a guide for other families to advocate for their own children with significant disabilities.
Good nutrition is critical for your child's healthy brain development. It's not uncommon for families to struggle getting enough food to eat. If you feel like you haven't had enough food to feed your whole family in the last month, please talk to someone. This is a common problem.
All adolescents and young adults experience some peer pressure to engage in drinking or other risky behaviors. Adolescents with cerebral palsy engage in risky behaviors just like other teenagers. Some families find it helpful to sign what's called, a Contract for Life, or a Contract for Safety, with their child. The parent agrees not to yell in the moment and to have a conversation about it the next day. That's one way that adolescents and parents can create some zone of safety around drinking.
Up to 50% of adolescents with cerebral palsy have an intellectual disability, as well as a physical disability. Adolescents with intellectual disabilities still need sexual health education, they just need it in a way that's more individualized so that they can understand it and use it.
As 20% of women with CP surveyed experienced pregnancy, there is a need to increase awareness, education, support, and advocacy for achievement of optimal reproductive health.
This fact sheet has been created for women with cerebral palsy to provide answers to some common questions about CP, pregnancy, and birth. Women with CP should follow general guidelines about getting healthy before getting pregnant, but women with CP may need to do other things as well to prepare for pregnancy.
Cerebral palsy is a damage to the developing brain in the motor part of the brain. Individuals with cerebral palsy have problems with weakness and sometimes also involuntary movements.