2 Septuplets’ Growth Spurs Concerns of Disease

Two of the 17-month-old McCaughey septuplets are growing so slowly that there’s concern they may have cerebral palsy, their mother said.

Although Nathan and Alexis are being monitored for the disorder, their pediatrician is not ready to make a diagnosis, Bobbi McCaughey said.

“While there are some signs of something that could be long-term, they don’t have to mean that,” she said, according to Sunday’s Des Moines Register. “They could just be muscle issues.”

While Alexis can’t yet sit up by herself, McCaughey said, she can stay upright once someone puts her in a sitting position. Dr. Peter Hetherington has said that Alexis’ lack of strength could stem from her difficulty in getting enough food to thrive.

Alexis weighs a little more than 15 pounds, up from 12 pounds in January, and is still fed through a tube in her stomach. She vomits frequently, and became dehydrated and lost weight while hospitalized for nine days in January with flu and diarrhea.

Nathan weighs 20 pounds. The newspaper did not say what the other children weigh and there was no additional comment Sunday.

Calls to the firm that handles all of the McCaugheys’ public relations, the Ambassador Agency of Nashville, were not answered Sunday.

Doctors frequently monitor developmentally delayed children between 18 months and 30 months for cerebral palsy, said Dennis C. Harper, a University of Iowa pediatrics professor and president of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine.

Cerebral palsy is a motor nerve disorder caused by a permanent brain defect or injury shortly after birth. Those who suffer milder cases may have spastic paralysis, while more severe cases can include seizures, numbness and mental retardation.

Physical therapists have been visiting the McCaughey home twice a month since October to work with Nathan and Alexis. Even with their medical challenges, McCaughey said, she and her husband, Kenny, are generally optimistic.

“I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I said I never, ever, worried,” she said.