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Head shaking

My 7 year old son is shaking his head every couple on second. We thought it is because he needed a hear cut. we took him to get the hair cut and it subsided a little for a couple weeks, but never went away. Now it is getting worse. People are noticeing his shaking. I really am concerned his friends are going to tease him. Is this something to be concered about? Could this be an indication of something medically wrong?
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Avatar universal
My daughter does the head shaking a lot and I have no idea what to do.  We are going to take her to the doc but i know they will just say its a tic.  I will demand a referral to the behavioral specialist i guess.  And why the hell does nobody update their comments on here.  This forum sure doesn't answer any concerns, it only makes them worse.
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
Try visiting the chiropractor. I find myself doing the head shaking thing a lot of the time and it's usually because my neck is out just enough to bother me. I'm 26 and have a sensory processing disorder and have been told I likely fall on the autism spectrum. So for me the littlest difference is noticable and can cause discomfort which translates to me shaking my head. It's an attempt to try to get things to realign on thier on.
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Avatar universal
What did this end up being? Going trough it now with my daughter. How long did it last
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Avatar universal
We went to a child neurologist first, who is now going to refer him to a child behavourial therapist. We've also got in touch with the school occupational therapist. There are two great Facebook groups Complex Motor Stereotypies and think the other one is Motor Stereotypies and they have great information available. Depending where you are the John Hopkins medical centre is a very good site and the leading consultant in the uk is Dr Hederley at St Thomas hospital. Hope this helps!
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189897 tn?1441126518
COMMUNITY LEADER
  opps forgot to ask.   Is treatment done via a psychologist, psychiatrist, or by something like an Occupational Therapist?
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189897 tn?1441126518
COMMUNITY LEADER
   Thank you very much for your post.  I am looking that up right now!  
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Avatar universal
Hi I found this tread whilst I was trying to find out why my son was head nodding and hand flapping.  He's been diagnosed with Stereotypic Movement Disorder and its only recently they have begun to realise what it is.  Its often mis diagnosed as Tourettes or Tics but it isn't.  Behavourial therapy can help and sometimes ADHD is present as well.  Just wanted to update you as its taken me four years to get this far.
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Avatar universal
Hi, I have a 8 year old daughter who started doing many weird movements since she was 5.  I have take her to many tests and evaluations with psychologists and neurologists and she was diagnosed with ADHD Inattentive Type and Tourette Syndrome.  I do not medicate her since the tics can get worse with ADHD medication.  Right now she's doing the same tic you have described your son is doing.  She shakes her head and smell her fingers at the same time. She even smell the food.  Doctors say it will go away when they grow up or it is possible they continue with at least one of the tics.  The trigger point of these tics are the streess, lack of rest, pressure from school or from home.  There is no cure for this syndrome and disorder, however there are therapies that can help them to learn how to manage the anxiety so they can control a little the tics.  I hope this could be helpful for you.
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1 Comments
Pr7
I agree what you say Nirka..
Avatar universal
I am curious as to what you found out from the dr. Did you take your son? My son also put his fingers up to his mouth, would hop while walking (all the time and couldn't walk without hopping). Now he is shaking his head. I have been worried. what did you find out with your son?
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Avatar universal
I am 15 years old and had head trauma when I was a toddler. As long as I can remember every once in a while I can feel tense pressure come and I would shake my head vigorously for second or two. I can't find anything like it on the internet.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
My younger half brother has had Tourette Syndrome since he was young. I don't remember the exact age his symptoms became obvious, but I know by 7 years old he'd had it for a couple/few years. He inherited it from his father.  My brother is now 30 yrs old. He mainly has the head jerking symptom.

He turns his head around a lot. His head used to jerk a little and move around more randomly. But, I think as he was trying to get more control over the movement, it started looking like he was turning his head sideways to look back over his shoulder. I think he was able to get some control over the movement, and it probably looked to someone just passing by that he was looking over his shoulder. But if you knew him, you saw that he did that kind of often.

I think he has some other symptoms, but I'm not familiar with them. I think he's had some muscle (back?)  issues associated with Tourette Syndrome.
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Avatar universal
My son is 7 and does the exact same thing everyone else is saying!  He shakes his head and when I ask him why he says he doesn't know. I did take him to the doctor who checked him out and he found nothing wrong.  The doctor said it's probably just a habit he picked up and he'll probably stop after a while.  I got his eyes checked too but the eye doctor said he has perfect vision.  It still worries me though.  
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Avatar universal
hi my son shaks his head now it started about 2 weeks ago i have asked him why he is doing it and.he said i dont no i dont no what to do but i am going to make a appointment to see the doc
Helpful - 0
189897 tn?1441126518
COMMUNITY LEADER
    Ya, the not responding drives me nuts too.  We try and help and would love to know if our suggestions have helped.  I am guessing that since many people don't respond,  that our suggestions have helped and they quit posting - but who knows?  Our they do then get a medical appointment and that solves the problem.
    I do know that starting your own thread or post really increases your chances for our regular members to see your post and respond.  A lot of people seem to pick up our site from google and add their post to a very old post which many times gets missed by us.
    In your case, if this is somewhat of a recent event - I would go to a ear, nose, throat specialist first and rule out any medical condition.  If you look up what a tic looks like - I'm not sure that this would necessarily fit that description - but I would need more info.  Hope this helps.  And please post back what you do discover so others can be helped.  Best wishes.
Helpful - 0
189897 tn?1441126518
COMMUNITY LEADER
    Ya, I think its your hours on the computer.  You need to force yourself to take regular breaks and stretch everything.  I would make sure that your work station is correctly adjusted so that you are not straining.  but more importantly, you need to see someone who can help.  A chiropractor might be a good place to start or a sports medicine.  Acupuncture or  message fairly often will help.  Also they have things you can throw in the microwave, heat up and wrap around your neck to relax the muscles.
    I think you get a tight neck feeling and thats why you shake.  But now its probably become somewhat of a habit.   Try instead of shaking fast - to do it really sloooooow.  Take your time.  Take deep breaths and slowly rotate your head, shrug your shoulders.  Force yourself to go slow!
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Avatar universal
I'm 21year old.
I keeps on getting new new habits and I really myself hate it.
In childhood I remember I use to spit a lot that was for some couple of months, I usually clean my face with hand like I'm sweating (even doing now too :-/), and from last 6-7 months I got this worst habit of shaking head.
It starting with my habit of crackling neck left right.
And now I'm in bad condition.
When I don't do it, I feel so annoying and weird, So I end up shaking head.
And because I do it so badly and fast that my neck is paining hell lot all the time.
Usually I shake towards Right-side a lot and thus the pain towards right side of neck and shoulders is same as that of Cervical Pain.

I really hate it and make excuse of Cervical pain to people but I myself know what it is.

Ant this is the first time I just google-d for this problem and came here.

And I'm a Animation student so I have to sit on Pc for hours and hours.
Any solution guys ?
I really hate it.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi, I'm having the same issue with my son. He is almost 9 , has been swimming a lot this summer . He started shaking his head now and then, but for the past week he has been vigorously shaking a lot along with cracking his neck w and then. I'm wondering what happened to your son's habit? What worked for him?
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535822 tn?1443976780
Jump skip is normal child behavior when they are exhubrant..does he shake his head all the time, could it be hes getting attention by doing It?
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Avatar universal
These symptoms sound totally like the little boy in my class who has Aspergers autism and Tourettes SYndrome. The motions are called tics and can also come in the form of shouting, spitting, etc. The boy in my class hits himself and/or the table. The intriguement with spinning sounds like autism. I would get a second opinion from the doctor. I could be wrong of course but it sounds really familiar. Look up these two syndromes. See what you think.
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Avatar universal
my 10yr son is now shaking his head we will take him to the doc today ,  we noticed first , he used to open his mouth wide , like he was trying to pop his ears , now we was walk in walmart an he jumped skip , i said stop playing , he said i just wanted to jump, i said stop , but i noticed 2 weeks later is head shaking up an down, like he saying yes , an he does it 2 times, now a week later , we watch him saying something not right , so off to the doc toady , but he's had ear problems, no tubes but i think he need them, but not sure if this is the problem, so im not sure if ur child is ok now i hope so , im woundering if  this will go away in time , tim concord nc thanks
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Avatar universal
my 10 yr son shaking his head , we are taking him to the doc toady ,  i hope ur child is ok now an all is gone , but what did the doc say , thank tim concord nc
Helpful - 0
973741 tn?1342342773
Kids do find different ways to self soothe.  I will tell you that I have one boy with a developmental delay and one without and my son without has done more of this kind of thing than the other.  Try not to worry.  good luck
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Avatar universal
Hi, I'm reading everyones comments and noticing that my step son is somewhat like a few other children here.  As a baby he would rub his head on the carpet from side to side.  When I came into his life he was three.  At first it seemed to me that music would trigger it, when the song would stop he would still be shaking his head.  Then through the past few years, he shakes it all the time, non stop!  You can say buddy keep your head still and he will stop for a few seconds, but then he is doing it again.  He is in Kindergarden and the teacher picked up on it right away.  The doctor says its just a habit, some kids suck their thumbs and this is his habit!  It just doesn't seem normal to me, I know I'm just step mom, but I'm still worried!!!
Helpful - 0
1670571 tn?1303706040
i have always rocked side to side either from the hip up or sway with my head side to side and my body too from one leg to the other. I also either flap my hands in one the side of me or shake them. this has been sence i was 2 1/2 people thought it was cute nothing of it untill a doctor said i need to see a neuroligst wich said its a sothing thing. I dont think so really because people would make fun of me for it if it was sotthing i would of hid it i never realy knew i was doing it till people told me then i tryed hard to stop, i just couldn't and had to do it again it not all the time but over 20 times a day. i am 20 now and i notice in the past few days because i have new hand movements with the rocking like the flaping of hands is in front of me and sometime i do somthing that looks like i'm hitting the pinao the way my hands are in front of me. i have noticed those to because there right in front of me. I wish i knew what it was so i could take somthing to stop it i try so hard but i can't if  i know i'm doing it, and then somtime i don't know when i do it. I am 20 now and its not that cute no more and for me people seem to notice.

If any ideas please write back thank you, CD
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