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Floppy infant syndrome
Hypotonia in an infant. Passive resistance to movement of the extremities is called tone. Normally infants give only a moderate amount of resistance to you when you move their extremities. The amount of tone present is one way of assessing the condition of the nervous and muscular system in an infant. Tone should be examined when the infant is resting quietly, but awake. Infants with too much tone, too much resistance to passive movement, are called hypertonic and an extreme example of this is spasticity. Infants with too little tone, too little resistance to passive movement are called hypotonic. Severely hypotonic infants are like rag dolls with little resting tone in their muscles. Some of these infants even have difficulty breathing they are so hypotonic. Many different neurological and muscle problems can cause hypotonic muscles or floppy infant syndrome. If your child has been diagnosed with this, the most important question is why. There are many causes and the prognosis depends on the cause.
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