My son's stroke caused a large infarct (dead tissue) on the left side of the brain. It was caused by a blockage of blood flow to the middle cerebral artery, one of the main arteries to the brain. The MRI showed dead tissue the size of a large walnut and a smaller infarct the size of a peanut below it. A newborn's brain is tiny, so this is a lot of dead brain cells. It affected the frontal-parietal region of the brain.
Usually, children with this type of damage display weakness on the opposite side of the body, in my son's case, his right side. (Did you know that the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body?) It can also cause a host of other issues, please click here for the full list.
This one sided weakness can make reaching milestones (such as his lifting head, rolling, sitting, crawling, etc.) extremely difficult. It can also affect swallowing, as in my son's case.
In a newborn, right sided weakness of his body and left sided weakness of his face muscles (the facial nerve doesn't cross to the other side) didn't seem very noticeable. Which makes sense, since newborns can't do much. This is why many parents don't realize their baby had a stroke until they are closer to 3 months old. My son's stroke was found early because he started having seizures,which oddly became a blessing.
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