In fact, the growth and development time and process of each child are almost the same, but due to many factors, some children will experience developmental delays. So how can you tell if your child has symptoms of developmental delay? What are the symptoms of developmental delay? What are the causes of developmental delay? What is the risk of developmental delay? How to effectively prevent developmental delay? Come check it out.

Representation of developmental delay
Symptoms of growth retardation
Growth retardation is often manifested in many aspects, including backward physical development, backward motor development, and backward intellectual development, but it can also be prominent in one aspect. If the height, weight, and head circumference are all low, it means that the child's development has a comprehensive delay, and it is necessary to consult a pediatrician in detail to confirm whether further examination is required.
Symptom 1: Physical retardation
Some children with congenital developmental delay have abnormal performance in face and posture. For example, children with congenital ignorance have symptoms such as too wide eye distance, slanted eyes, collapsed nose bridge, tongue often dragging outside the mouth, drooling, etc., which is often referred to as the international face. Children with hydrocephalus have a particularly large head circumference, and children with microcephaly have a particularly small head circumference. Children with hypothyroidism are particularly short in stature, and children with phenylketonuria have unusually white skin and light hair.
Symptom 2: Backward motor development
The motor development of children with developmental delay is significantly slower than that of normal children. The starting age of movements such as prone lifting, sitting, standing, and walking is later than that of normal children of the same age. In particular, walking is more obvious, and it is often not possible to walk on its own until the age of 3-4 or 4-5, and it is unstable.
Symptom 3: Lagging behind in language development
Normal babies can imitate voices at 7-8 months old, call Mom and Dad around one year old, speak a dozen words at one and a half years old, understand simple instructions, ask simple questions at around 2 years old, and can basically express at around 3 years old one's own thoughts. Those who are four or five months behind or even l-2 years behind have these performances, which should be regarded as a signal of intellectual backwardness.
Symptom 4: Mental retardation
The earliest symptoms of developmentally delayed infants are often difficulty feeding, not sucking, and are particularly prone to spitting up, indicating that the nervous system is damaged and intelligence will be affected later.
Symptom 5: backward mental development
If one of the indicators of height, weight, and head circumference is low, it means that the child may have some developmental delays. Items such as cranial nerves or endocrine can be further checked to see if the child's physical development is affected.

Causes of developmental delay
There are many reasons for growth retardation, some are natural processes, some are genetic factors, and some are diseases. Among them, 80%-90% of children with growth retardation belong to normal growth variants, such as familial short stature, physical retardation, constitutional developmental delay and low birth weight short stature, which are related to congenital genetic factors or intrauterine dysplasia. Normal and no special handling required.
Reason 1: Genetic factors
The characteristics, physique, potential and limits of children's growth and development are all restricted by parents' genetic factors, such as skin, hair color, facial features, etc. For such children, parents should still create good acquired external conditions in order to maximize their growth potential.
Reason 2: Endocrine growth hormone
The growth of the human body is mainly regulated by various hormones, especially growth hormone and sex hormone. When growth hormone is deficient, symptoms of short stature occur; sex hormones can cause bones to fuse prematurely, affecting growth and development, so adolescents with early puberty can affect final height growth.
Reason 3: Gender differences between men and women
Boys and girls grow and develop differently. In general, girls have lower average height and weight than boys, girls enter puberty two years earlier than boys, girls grow faster at the beginning of this period, but boys' puberty development lasts longer than girls, so boys' final height still higher than girls. Therefore, when analyzing growth and development, boys and girls should be studied separately.
Reason 4: Maternal influence
The growth and development of the fetus in the mother's body is affected by the mother's growth environment, mood, nutrition, disease and other factors. If the mother is malnourished, it may lead to miscarriage, premature birth, and delayed physical and brain development of the fetus. If the pregnant mother is sick in the first trimester, it will directly lead to fetal malformation.
Reason 5: Organ or nerve damage
If your baby has a language delay, it may be due to hearing loss or problems with the throat, nose or mouth. In the case of "communication intent" disorder, it may be related to problems with the central nervous system.
Reason 6: Disease factors
Such as chromosomal abnormalities, Down syndrome, Turner syndrome, metabolic diseases, bone diseases (Osteochondrogenesis), chronic diseases, chronic malnutrition diseases, endocrine diseases (such as growth hormone deficiency, hypothyroidism) and other diseases caused by Growth retardation, for this part of the short stature caused by the disease, you should go to the hospital for examination to find out the cause of the slow growth and treat it.

Principles of treatment of growth retardation in babies
First, through the medical history, physical examination and laboratory examination, according to the detailed information and laboratory results, comprehensive analysis, determine the cause of the baby's growth retardation, and finally determine the treatment principle. The reasons are different, and the treatment methods are different:
Method 1: Malnutrition. Should be reasonable nutrition, a comprehensive and balanced diet, develop good eating habits, promote appetite and so on.
Method 2: Short stature due to systemic disease. The primary disease should be actively treated.
Method 3: Familial short stature, physical growth retardation. Through a variety of recuperation, give full play to the growth potential, and use growth hormone as appropriate.
Method 4: Caused by mental factors. Improve the living environment, so that children can get spiritual comfort and life care.
Method 5: Congenital genetic, metabolic diseases. Special treatment according to the situation.
Method 6: Hypothyroidism, pituitary dwarfism, congenital ovarian hypoplasia, small for gestational age infants, idiopathic short stature, etc.