Baby 9 months had MRI this week...advice please?

[TaliaJ]

Hi there,

My little girl Alexi is 9 months old and started doing some odd quirky behaviours the last few months. She is our first daughter, we also have a 3 year old boy.

Back in December I fell while holding her. I was walking fast through the shops to get to a baby room when I slipped on water from a leaky roof, landing on her head. It was polished concrete, so the bang was quite significant, although no lump and very little bruise came up. We took her to the doctors where they looked in her eyes and said she was fine.  

2 weeks later she started pulling a very odd face, which continues to this day. It is a face of pure surprise, her mouth forms an "o" shape and sometimes droops in the corners. She will do this for emotion, but sometimes, just because.

Then she started crawling and a few weeks in, her right arm would give way with such force she would bump her eye or cut her lip. I started feeling really concerned then. Sometimes we would be watching her play and either arm would spasm outward. She does this still and it looks kind of like a Nazi salute. She does it gesturing at something and she does it seemingly for no reason. Sometimes I swear she looks at it like "what are you doing there?!"

She will go a couple of hours where she will do nothing out of the ordinary (besides "thumbing" - below) and then we will have an hour where she will do the arm spasms and mouth twitch a couple of times every minute.

Then there is the "thumbing". My friends and family have never known another baby to do this. She dominates with her thumbs. Fists closed, thumbs out, and knocks on everything, taps everything with her thumbs. She picks things up this way (like a crumb). She has done this for months now. She can grasp objects and pass them from hand to hand, but has not developed the pincer grasp yet.

We will be having a neurologist look at her because we want to know if she is quirky or if it is something more sinister. The paedeatricians could not tell us if what she is doing is normal or not, they ordered MRI's and EEG's to be safe.

Apart from the quirks, she is developing great, she can stand and cruise, sometimes stand alone. She is saying "mama" and seems ahead and very strong. But everyone around me (and me) are getting concerned about these quirks. Any ideas anyone?? Thanks :)

[ku111]

Have you found out anything about your baby?  Just concerned.

[TaliaJ]

Thank you for your response.
The neurologist we will be seeing is from the local childrens hospital and I've heard he is one of the best here. I have thought about a video, so tried it out tonight, but of course, she didn't do anything lol.
Will have to keep trying, which is not hard, as most phones now have video recorder.
Thanks again!

[ku111]

Just to add (sorry).  I would request a Pediatric Neuro consult for her just as a second opinion and peace of mind.  Take the MRI/EEG results with you and anything you record (this can be in short videos).  Can get copies of them from where you had them done.  Keeping a record for yourself is a good idea also.

[ku111]

I think you did the right thing and the MRI and EEG should show something and I am glad your ped. took you seriously.  I learned something several months ago with my own child.  If you think, as her mother, there is something not right then you keep voicing your concerns until what you feel in your gut as a mom accepts the answer.  I also got great advise from a friend (wish I had gotten it sooner) and they suggested video taping what happens (because they never do it when the dr. is around LOL!).  It helped us a lot and the dr's could see what we were talking about.  I wish you the best!