FLOPPY INFANT SYNDROME: OVERVIEW
Floppy infants exhibit poor control of movement, delayed motor skills, and hypotonic motor movement patterns. Weak infants always have hypotonia, but hypotonia may exist without weakness. Some indications of CNS abnormality are because of poor state of alertness, lack of response to visual and auditory stimuli, inability to manage co ordinated functions like swallowing and sucking noted that the earlier the onset, the more severe and precipitus the course. and spinal muscular atrophy. Parents commonly complain to physicians that their baby is very passive, that it does not move its limbs like others, that its breathing pattern is abnormal or inquire why the baby cannot be weaned off the ventilator. Several studies have shown that central causes account for 60% to 80% of hypotonia cases and that peripheral causes occur in 15% to 30%7,9.Conditions where central and peripheral hypotonia may coexist are Familial dysautonomia, Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, infantile neuroaxonal degeneration, Lipid storage diseases, Lysosomal disorders, mitochondrial disorders. Treatment of the infant who has hypotonia must be tailored to the specific responsible condition. In general, therapy is supportive. Rehabilitation is an important therapeutic consideration, with the aid of physical and occupational therapists.