Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
Avatar universal

Baby muscle spasms, due to low potassium???

Hi,

In the last two days my seemingly healthy-almost 8 month old daughter has been having involuntary arm/shoulder/upper body spasms.  Yesterday, I saw it happen maybe three times, (2-4 twitches per instance) today, there were probably over 100 times that she had this spasm, all except while sleeping. No fever or any other sign of sickness.  Seems to have most when she's excited, like an excited fist pump. Any other parents have this due to low potassium? She is exclusively breast fed and for almost 2 months has been eating rice/oatmeal veggie/fruit servings with 4 nursing sessions daily. Now, lately we have not been giving her the Poly-vi-sol vitamin regularly, maybe once a week, if that. So before I freak out over what brain disorder that is causing this in an otherwise perfectly healthy baby with no complications EVER since conception, I hope someone may be able to help. Thanks.
35 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
Avatar universal
hi.  What was the outcome?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
airforcedad,
what was ultimately the outcome?!!
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi anna, just wondering how did u go with your child. Im seeing similar symptoms with my 7mnth daughter and shes not even rolling yet.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
OMG, FINALLY someone has given me some hope. My daughters random spasms have been freaking me out but they are not consistent with any of the 'nasty' conditions. I was at a loss until I read your post and now I'm quite confident it's just shudders. I'll get her tested to be sure but at least my heart rate has returned to normal. Thank you, thank you and thank you...
Helpful - 0
535822 tn?1443976780
You may want to contact KimHaas by message as this thread is 4 years old and she may not see it now check out her profile ..
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi,

I was searching the net for the same exact symptoms for my 6 month old daughter. Did you happen to find anything out?

Thanks.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
my 7 months daughter does the very same thing when feeding her, playing or bathing. At first i wasn' worried because i thought she was excited (shows no signs of discomfort or whatsoever) but then now im beginning to worry because she twitches almost everyday. Those who have already consultant the doc pls do advice us about the doctors findings. Thanx
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I want to thank everyone for sharing their information.  My 7 month old began having "shakes" and facial spasms which looked almost like he was being shocked.  They started at 4 months went away and this last weekend started with greater frequency and lasted from 1 -10 seconds in length.  I found this forum and read most of the posts before going to the hospital last night.  
     Our neurologist said he sees this quite frequently and that our symtoms looked like "shuddering attacks".  (My wife and I had never heard of shuddering attacks and kept searching online for "seizures" and "spasms.")
     The neurologist said during seizures the baby will more commonly drop their head forward (like nodding off to sleep) and seizures occur more frequently while the baby is sleeping.  I think tmacd_33's post from Mar 18 is very accurate, but would like to suggest going to youtube and searching "baby shuddering attack" to see if these symptoms look like what your child is experiencing.  If they do, I would rest assured that the shuddering supposedly goes away by the time the baby is 2.    
      I would still take the baby to the neurologist and ask for the EEG to rule out seizures.  

side note- the neurologist also said shuddering attacks are not dangerous and will go away.  He sees it often as a pediatric neurologist, but because they go away in time, most people even adult neurologists haven't seen them before.    
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
video tape it & then show it to her pediatrician. We did & it turned out our baby girl had Infantile seizure disorder......very scarry , I will not lie ......she had to have EEG's and an MRI etc....... their was no known cause for it ......thankfully and now she is on topomax. Doing very well & seizure free since Aug 2009. (She was having seizures everyday for 3 months).I hope all is well with your little one......hope & prayers !
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
My daughter also started something similar.  How are everyone's babies doing now?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Jenny - my little jase does the same thing. i first noticed this when we gave him regular foods - fruits actually- at about four months old. It has increased more recently which led me to do this google search. I plan to discuss with my sister in law who is a peditrician and then see a nuerologist since the info above seems to suggest it may be a mild seizure. Jase is now seven months and is also a happy baby. I too had a wonderful pregnancy.  i will keep you posted.  
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
this is crazy...i just got on here to look up information on some actions my 6 month old daughter has been doing in the past few weeks. she takes her head and pulls it into her chest..holds her breath..tightens up her fist and pulls her arms behind her head as if she is getting really mad. i told her peds about it and she was concerned that maybe it was side effects from the zantac she was put on because of her reflux. there have been no reported side effects so the next thing she was thinking was muscle spasms. when i saw all the related stories of the same thing my daughter is doing..i was none the less shocked. what causes things like this? i still havent had any answers from her doctor. im just glad that theres others out there even though its a situation that we cant figure out...i feel better knowing my daughter isnt the only one but i was really worried. i had a perfect pregnancy and she is a wonderful and happy baby all the time..i just want answeres to what it is that is causing her to do these "twitches".
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi All, my bay is having the same issue and I am so concerned that I want to go to the hospital right now. I am wondering if this has nothing to do with the shots because my baby just had the hepatites B and polio on Tuesday and after two day he started having this thing. Please, someone can help me?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
This site was very helpful. Thank you for your input. My healthy 7 mos. old son has been having full body spasms that come in clusters of 7-10 at a time a few hours apart. They started Thursday morning and after showing a friend at church what he was doing that night she agreed that it didn't look quite right and she recommended that I look on the internet when I got home. After looking at this site and a few others I found a site that said you should call your doctor right away if your child had these symptoms. Since it was after 10 pm I spoke to the consulting nurse and she was very concerned  that he might be having seizures and she told us to go to the ER at Children's Hospital right away. The doctor was baffled by his symptoms but he said the fact that our son was able to stay happy, awake and active before, during and after his spasms was a very good sign. Over the weekend we video taped our son's spasms and we returned to Children's Tuesday for an EEG and an appointment with the neurologist. The EEG results were good and the neurologist said it was definitely not seizures or Infantile Spasms. They said it is just myoclonus which is probably being caused by a immature nervous system which he should outgrow and is nothing to worry about. They were very grateful that we brought in the video and they requested a copy. If I can get it up on youtube I will post a link.

What I learned from this experience:

If your baby has these symptoms I would urge you call your doctor and to get your baby to an ER at a Children's Hospital right away as these can be symptoms of a much more serious condition. In some cases delay in treatment can lead to brain damage. Have someone else drive you there so you can watch your baby and be prepared to have the driver pull over if your baby goes into a seizure so you can get your baby out of the car seat and put them on their side in case they vomit and so the driver can call 911. (A friend of mine that has a baby with frequent seizures just has her older daughter flip the car seat upside down, I don't know if the doctors would be okay with this or not.)

Try to get a video of your baby's symptoms because if your baby in like mine they will only have spasms when the doctor is out of the room.

Ask about having an EEG and seeing a neurologist. I'm glad we did because now we can put all our fears to rest.  

Follow up with your pediatrician. I felt a little silly keeping our follow up appointment with the pediatrician today since we now know for sure that our baby is okay but I figured that it was good to keep him in the loop. While I was there I mentioned that when they did our baby's blood work at the ER they found that our baby's iron level was a little low. The pediatrician ordered another blood test and found that he is anemic and prescribed an iron supplement.

Try to get everyone you can praying for your baby. I am so grateful for the many people that were praying for us. When people started praying his symptoms started going away and we were more at peace.

And of course always remember that the internet can be helpful but it should never replace the advice of your doctor.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Our daughter had strange arm 'spasms' from the age of six months onwards, and we were extremely concerned.

She would lock her arm in an outstretched position and do an alarmed expression during these 'spasms', which lasted for a good few seconds.

Sometimes she would do it repeatedly, many times over a few minutes.

As first time parents we'd never seen anything like this and were fearing something serious.

But after videoing her/seeing a specialist and having an EEG etc it was suggested that this was a voluntary action rather than an involuntary spasm. Basically our daughter exploring her body, stretching her arm out as far as it would go to feel whatever sensation it was giving her.

A good sign that it was voluntary rather than involuntary was that we could distract her from it - calling her name loudly mid-'spasm' would mostly stop her doing it immediately.

And in the end she stopped doing it herself - she's now over 16 months and hasn't done it at all since she turned one.

It was 'just a phase of experimentation' and of course we're super thankful for that, cos it was very scary for a while.

Anyway, just thought we'd add what happened to us, cos this forum was one of the only places where we found people who'd experienced similar things to us at a very stressful time.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
My 9month old daughter has been having frequent involuntary jerks in her legs.Over the month it has become more frequent in the day. She is breastfeed and solids have been introduced more often such as 4oz of oatmeal for breakfast, but bfmilk is still the dominant source. Anyone experience the same and is it normal?
Helpful - 0
597239 tn?1223778770
I'm not sure, but it seems like a myoclunus I think you need to visit a neurologist and firstly take an EEG.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thank you Jazzcats. I took my son to the doctor today and showed him our video.  He said it is myoclonic jerks but has referred me to a pediatrician (I live in the UK and it is standard to see a GP rather than a pediatrician). Hopefully the pediatrician can give a better diagonisis but typical of the NHS I will have to wait for an appointment.

My sons seizures are less severe than Maddies but very similar.  Maddie is a cutie!  All the best.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
We have finally gotten some answers.  My daughter had an MRI that was normal and then we saw a neurologist, who diagnosed her with benign myoclonic seizures.  It's a benign form of epilepsy that goes away on its own, usually by the age of 1.  My daughter is 8 months and already starting to do better - I haven't seen hardly any spasms lately.  If you want to look at video of her spasms, go to YouTube and search "Maddie's muscle spasms".  The neurologist diagnosed her after looking at this video.  Try not to worry too much and good luck!
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I have been looking up information because my 8 month old son has had the same twitching described in this forum.  I am going to take a video of him and take it to the doctor but would like to know the results of anyones visit to their doctor does anyone have results yet?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Did some more research - looks like possibly benign myoclonic seizures.   I am going to take her to the doctor on Monday and hopefully he will have a neurologist look at her.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
My 7 month old is doing this exact same thing - I went online to try and find some information and this discussion describes perfectly what she is doing.  She is also very healthy and breast-fed.  I am really freaked out - has anyone gotten any answers yet?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi,

My daughter is 9 1/2 months now and just started this shoulder twitching a few days ago as well. It is worrying us a lot. It initially was just a couple of times a day, now it seems to be happening quite often..maybe because we are watching her closely now. The twitches does not seem to bother her and it last just a few seconds then stops. Sometimes her shoulder will go up to her cheek, sometimes is just a tiny twitch. Mostly happens on her right shoulder. Going to take her to see a Paed this week.

Has anyone got any results back from their visit?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
My breastfed 5 1/2 month old son started having shoulder spasms a few days ago... it looked like his whole left arm was straightened and his shoulder would shrug up to his ear, then he would be like it never happened for a few seconds or a minute, and it would keep happening.  The three days that he had these spasms, it was while he was in his hichair at around 10 in the morning, eating cereal or applesauce for breakfast.  

I took a video on my camera thee days ago, 1 minute and a half long, with 19 spasms, and he was doing it again so I called his pediatrician yesterday. She had me bring him in, she rotated his shoulders, had him hold something in both hands to see if he could hold things normally, she even felt around his stomach, and then she told me to take him to the hospital today and have an X-ray done to check his joints... ?  Which confuses me.  I asked if she had ever seen something like this before and she said no, she didn't even know what diagnosis to write on the scrip to take to the hospital.

We decided to wait a day or two and see if he keeps doing this... He's such a healthy baby, there were no complications with my pregnancy or birth, and he hasn't even had a cold.  Right now we are going to wait and see.
Helpful - 0
2
Have an Answer?

You are reading content posted in the Pediatrics Community

Top Children's Health Answerers
Learn About Top Answerers
Didn't find the answer you were looking for?
Ask a question
Popular Resources
Fearing autism, many parents aren't vaccinating their kids. Can doctors reverse this dangerous trend?
Is a gluten-free diet right for you?
We answer your top questions about the flu vaccine.
Learn which over-the-counter medicines are safe for you and your baby
Yummy eats that will keep your child healthy and happy
Healing home remedies for common ailments