Symptoms begin between the ages of 3 and 6 months with irritability, fevers, limb stiffness, seizures, feeding difficulties, vomiting, and slowing of mental and motor development. In the first stages of the disease, doctors often mistake the symptoms for those of cerebral palsy. Other symptoms include muscle weakness, spasticity, deafness, optic atrophy, optic nerve enlargement,[5] blindness, paralysis, and difficulty when swallowing. Prolonged weight loss may also occur. Juvenile and adult-onset cases of Krabbe disease also occur, which have similar symptoms but slower progression.