A Simple Guide to Low Muscle Tone (Hypotonia), Diagnosis, Treatment and Related Conditions

By Kenneth Kee

This book describes Low Muscle Tone (Hypotonia), Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases

Low muscle tone is termed hypotonia and “floppy muscle syndrome.”.

People diagnosed with low muscle tone do not show resistance when joints in their body move.

Muscle tone is the quantity of resistance (tension) to the movement the muscles maintain at rest.

If a person relaxes the left arm and uses the right arm to pinch the bicep, the resistance the person feels is the muscle tone.

For people diagnosed with hypotonia, pinching the bicep would feel soft without any resistance.

Muscle tone is the body’s reaction to force and permits the person to maintain the posture to sit and use the reflexes such as moving the arms and legs, and control the function of the body’s organs.

Muscle weakness and low muscle tone are not the same.

Muscle weakness is insufficient strength in the muscles and is a symptom linked with hypotonia.

If the person has low muscle tone, the arms and legs appear floppy, similar to a rag doll.

The baby with low muscle tone might have difficulty sitting upright, holding their head up and bending their elbows and knees.

Doctors can diagnose the hypotonia in the first few minutes of life.

They do routine examinations of newborns’ muscle tone at 1 minute and 5 minutes after birth.

Occasionally hypotonia shows up a bit later but it will normally be detected by 6 months of age.

Low muscle tone can also affect adults as in adult spinal muscle atrophy.

Hypotonia is the most frequent feature that affects a newborn’s motor skills.

Low muscle tone, as a symptom, is not a disability but the underlying diagnosis could be a disability since it can affect how a person performs their daily tasks.

Infantile hypotonia can happen for no clear reason and is termed benign congenital hypotonia.

Hypotonia does not affect intellectual abilities.

The main causes are:
Brain injury or problems with how the baby’s brain formed during fetal development.
Disorders affecting how nerves communicate with muscles.
Disorders affecting muscles.
Disorders affecting nerves that communicate with muscles.
Infection.
Lack of oxygen before the baby is born or immediately after.

Children diagnosed with hypotonia may have delayed development milestones affecting their motor skills such as:
Sitting upright.
Crawling.
Walking.
Saying first words.
Feeding on their own.

Other symptoms are:
Muscle feeling extremely soft
Difficulty extending the limb beyond what is normal
Shallow breathing
Under-active gag reflex

If the doctors suspects hypotonia, they will do further tests:
Genetic test to identify any genetic abnormalities causing symptoms
Imaging tests to observe the brain, spinal cord and the muscles such as an MRI or CT scan.
Electromyograms to measure how muscles and nerves function
Electroencephalogram to measure electrical activity in the brain
Spinal tap to measure the pressure inside the spine and test a sample of the spinal cord fluid
Muscle biopsy, when the doctor gets a sample of the patient’s weak muscle tissue to study under a microscope
Blood tests to detect infections, metabolic diseases causing hypotonia

The doctor will begin treating the underlying disorder, followed by symptomatic treatment to correct symptoms:
Physical and occupational therapy to improve motor skills.
Speech-language therapy to correct difficulties in speaking, swallowing and breathing.
Sensory stimulation therapy to improve sensory function.
Medicines for infections

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Low Muscle Tone (Hypotonia)
Chapter 2 Causes
Chapter 3 Symptoms
Chapter 4 Diagnosis
Chapter 5 Treatment
Chapter 6 Prognosis
Chapter 7 Floppy Infant Syndrome
Chapter 8 Muscle Dystrophy Disease

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Kee
• Release date: Nov 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005514099

Kenneth Kee

Medical doctor since 1972.Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009.Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993.Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 74However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours inthe afternoon.He first started writing free blogs on medical disorders seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com.His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiography account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.comThis autobiography account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com.From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 1000 eBooks.He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books.He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures.Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.The later books go into more details of medical disorders.He has published 1000 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter.The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health disorders and not meant as textbooks.He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke.His clinic is now relocated to the Buona Vista Community Centre.The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall.He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) startingwith the Apple computer and going to PC.The entire PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core.The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive.He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance.His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner.The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned.This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale.Dr Kee is the author of:"A Family Doctor's Tale""Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine""Case Notes From A Family Doctor"

Book preview

A

Simple

Guide

To

Low Muscle Tone,

(Hypotonia)

Diagnosis,

Treatment

And

Related Conditions

By

Dr Kenneth Kee

M.B.,B.S. (Singapore)

Ph.D (Healthcare Administration)

Copyright Kenneth Kee 2022 Smashwords Edition

Published by Kenneth Kee at Smashwords.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated

To my wife Dorothy

And my children

Carolyn, Grace

And Kelvin

This book describes Low Muscle Tone (Hypotonia), Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases which is seen in some of my patients in my Family Clinic.

(What You Need to Treat Low Muscle Tone)

This e-Book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Introduction

I have been writing medical articles for my blog: http://kennethkee.blogspot.com (A Simple Guide to Medical Disorder) for the benefit of my patients since 2007.

My purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of my patients.

Health Education was also my dissertation for my Ph.D (Healthcare Administration).

I then wrote an autobiography account of my journey as a medical student to family doctor on my other blog: http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.com.

This autobiography account A Family Doctor’s Tale was combined with my early A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders into a new Wordpress Blog A Family Doctor’s Tale on http://kenkee481.wordpress.com.

From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 800 eBooks.

Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.

For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.

The later books go into more details of medical disorders.

The first chapter is always from my earlier blogs which unfortunately tends to have typos and spelling mistakes.

Since 2013, I have tried to improve my spelling and writing.

As I tried to bring the patient the latest information about a disorder or illness by reading the latest journals both online and offline, I find that I am learning more and improving on my own medical knowledge in diagnosis and treatment for my patients.

My diagnosis and treatment capability has improved tremendously from my continued education.

Just by writing all these simple guides I find that I have learned a lot from your reviews (good or bad), criticism and advice.

I am sorry for the repetitions in these simple guides as the second chapters onwards have new information as compared to my first chapter taken from my blog.

I also find repetition definitely help me and maybe some readers to remember the facts in the books more easily.

I apologize if these repetitions are irritating to some readers.

Chapter 1

What is Low tone muscle?

Low muscle tone is termed hypotonia.

People diagnosed with low muscle tone do not show resistance when joints in their body move.

Another term for low muscle tone is floppy muscle syndrome.

Muscle tone is the quantity of resistance (tension) to the movement the muscles maintain at rest.

If a person relaxes the left arm and uses the right arm to pinch the bicep, the resistance the person feels is the muscle tone.

For people diagnosed with hypotonia, pinching the bicep would feel soft without any resistance.

Muscle tone is the body’s reaction to force and permits the person to maintain the posture to sit and use the reflexes such as moving the arms and legs, and control the function of the body’s organs.

Muscle weakness and low muscle tone (hypotonia) are not the same.

Muscle weakness is insufficient strength in the muscles and is a symptom linked with hypotonia.

If the person has low muscle tone, the arms and legs appear floppy, similar to a rag doll.

The baby with low muscle tone might have difficulty sitting upright, holding their head up and bending their elbows and knees.

Incidence

Low muscle tone (Hypotonia) is present at birth, and doctors diagnose hypotonia most often during early infancy before the child is six months old.

Doctors can diagnose the hypotonia in the first few minutes of life.

They do routine examinations of newborns’ muscle tone at 1 minute and 5 minutes after birth.

Occasionally hypotonia appears up a bit later, but it will normally be detected by 6 months of age.

Low muscle tone (Hypotonia) can also affect adults as in adult spinal muscle atrophy.

Low muscle tone (Hypotonia) is the most frequent feature that affects a newborn’s motor skills.

The precise incidence is not known since hypotonia is often a symptom of another disorder.

Low muscle tone, as a symptom on its own,