My 2 month old sometimes has ankle clonus

[sbpa05]

My 2 month old son sometimes exhibits ankle clonus.  It has even occured when he strongly stretches his legs out even if his feet are not touching anything.  Other times it cannot be elicited at all, for instance, at his well check with his pediatrician.  When the clonus does occur it ranges from 4-20 beats. He doesn't seem to have increaed tone.  The only other thing that I have noticed (just 2-3 times) is that he will occasionally seem to get a "chill" and his head and shoulders briefly quiver.  He does hold his head up well when being held but not yet during tummy time.  He also, sometimes, pushes with his legs very strongly as if he were going to "jump" out of my lap.  

My questions are:  how long can ankle clonus be considered normal in an infant, or is it ever normal?  
                            is there anything else that I should be watching for or be concerned about?
                            has anyone out there ever had a similar situation?
  

[mdhatton]

My 13 year old started with clonus in Sep. 07. Clonus started gradual in left leg then in 2 mths. it was in right leg. When he was little he was a toe walker but all of his life has complained of leg pain. My advice is to seek a pedi neurologist just to let them do some test to make sure this does not get worse. I do know by the experiences with my son is clonus is very painful because of the spastic clonus. One of the things you can do is put you hand on the bottom of your sons foot up toward the toes and see if the clonus sets off. My sons clonus sets off worse when he puts his foot on the floor or if Dr.'s do that to his feet.
When he was little he  walked on his toes actually all the way until 10 years old. Then we had surgery called tendon release.  They have done all the tests and nothing but since your sons clonus started early maybe they can catch. this.  They did a test for mycroplasma test which will be back next week. I hope they have finally found it after all this time. This is a bacterial infection that can be worse with kids with low immunity.
As a mom dealing with the clonus I say please contact a neurologist. Do not let your pedi Dr. just pass this off because clonus is something that needs to be addressed.
With his age it is very important to find out now.
Best of luck

[dianam101]

my daughter is almost 10 wks. She has clonus in both of her ankles. Lately it has been about 6-10 beats, but a couple weeks ago it was sustained. I caught this about 2-3 wks ago. I told her pediatrician who said he thinks it is normal, but sent her to a neurologist. The neurologist says that he thinks she will out grow it and that it is just b/c her nervous system is immature. He wants to follow-up with her in 2 months. He says the intensity of the clonus should be less by this point. If not, then he will consider other tests, i.e. MRI. I am terrified about this. I don't want my child to have cerebral palsy or any other problem. Her neurologist really seems to think she will be fine because her tone is normal, she is reaching all of her developmental milestones and she is very alert and attentive. I pray that it is gone by 4-5 months although he says clonus can last up to 1 yr in some kids and still be normal. But he really wants to see that the intensity of the clonus is much less by 4-5 months. Meanwhile the neurologist says just watch and make sure her tone does not increase in the meantime.

Forgot to mention that he thinks if there is anything wrong it would be a tethered spinal cord. But b/c her tone is fine he is not that worried about this either.

If you have not already, I would ask your ped to refer her to neurologist just to find out more for yourself and so they can check your baby's tone, reflexes, development etc... Also I found it very hard to find a neurologist appoint. within a reasonable time frame so doing this know will help if later there really is a problem.

I hope both of our babies will be fine. Best wishes!

[aprmmom]

Your comments on your child sound alot like my son who is now 4 months old. He saw a pediatric neurologist who suggested an MRI and it came back normal. So I'm assuming either it's an immature nervous system or something spinal cord related, but he's meeting his milestones, etc.