Moms Speak Out on Shocking Lack of Cerebral Palsy Research

Today is World Cerebral Palsy Day and to celebrate, Ellen of LoveThatMax.com got many of us who blog about our kids with cerebral palsy together to talk about the shocking lack of research money that goes towards cerebral palsy, especially when compared to other neurological and childhood ailments. 

Here's what I had to say on the matter when Ellen asked me for a quote. Head on over to her blog to read more of the facts on cerebral palsy research and what you can do about it!

I was frankly shocked to learn how little of the money people donate towards "Cerebral Palsy" goes to cerebral palsy medical research. It's such a huge population of children with disabilities — something many organizations purport to aid — and yet so very little is being done to understand and treat this condition.
Part of me feels like this is an institutional bias against children with brain injuries versus adults with brain injuries. With an adult who has a stroke, say, it's easy to imagine the function they had and the function they could have again with proper treatment and care. But with a child, it's much easier to brush it off as: "They were born that way, so that's the way they'll always be" and never put the necessary resources towards rehabilitation.
There is so much exciting neuroscience out there now about how to tap into the brain's potential to rewire around damage, but it's taking an excruciatingly long time to trickle down to children with cerebral palsy because, I believe, those children and those young parents have very little time and money to address it on a national scale.
Instead, many of us are paying thousands, if not tens of thousands, every year to do what medical science refuses to — find treatments that work.

Please do what you can to spread awareness of this issue to your friends, family and representatives!

Jessie Kirk Photography