4 Month Old Baby "Shaking Head & Hands"

[JacksParents]

Our 4 month old baby boy is otherwise healthy, but now in the last few weeks has been showing signs of what we wonder are infintile spasms.  Basically, during breastfeeding, typically just before his day nap or just before going to bed in the evening, will begin shaking his head rapidly side to side, and at the same time his hands (both) begn shaking rapidly.  This is disturbing to see, and lasts about 15-20 seconds.  We have tried arousing him duing the event, and does not see to work.  However, it is so upsetting, it is hard to tell for sure.  His eyes sometimes are open and sometimes are closed.  He continues his feeding afterwards, then goes to bed.  His sleep has been very poor.  We have a camera to watch him at night, and have noticed he is extremely unsettled during his sleep.  He lays on his back, and will roll his head from side to side, not as fast though as the above described spasm.  He will sleep only 10-30 minutes for naps during the day, and at night, sleeps from 7pm-midnight restlessly, but quietly, and then after midnight is continuously up every 1 hour for feedings until 6:30am.  We are all exhausted, and worried about this recent development.  There is a lot of discussion on the web about "normal" baby type movements due to immature neurological system, but there is a lot of info about infintile spasms too, which typically peak at 4-7 months of age.  Please comment.

[mo_lollie]

im in new zealand and any info you can share with me would be amazing. my 6 month old son has just started doing the same thing as your son and jmel's. im really worried and its a bit scary. if u learn anything, please let me know. my email is mo_lollie***@****.
thanks

[Michelledj]

Hi, my son had infantile spasms which started at approx 3 months old, his eyes would squint and roll up, not fully but as if he was straining, both arms would raise up at the same time, this typically happened on waking or before sleep, I was told for weeks it wasnt anything serious or it was colic.. I video taped him doing theses movements and pushed and pushed to see a neurologist, when they saw it they did say it looked like a fit, prescribed him phenobarbitone* and sent us home... I wasnt happy after a few days as I felt as he hadnt had any tests done how could they be sure.... I then caused a fuss and we were admitted that night to hospital and he underwent lots of tests EEG showed hypsarrhythmia, which is a typical eeg of infantile spasms aka west syndrome, we had to start meds straight away as this seizure disorder is a severe epilepsy - luckily my sons was idiopathic and no underlying cause was found, he started on prednisolone but that did not work then he went on to vigabatrin, which stopped the seizures, he was on it for a year seizure free,, developed normally and a lot of that is down to catching it so early, please please if you think your child has this - get an eeg done and go from there, my son in now almost 7 and is a typical healthy happy little boy, unfortunatley he had what looked like a seizure back in jan and after eeg's and mri's (eeg abnormal and mri normal) he has been diagnosed with generalised tonic/clonic epilepsy just yesterday, he has started meds and we are confident he will be just fine and continue to be fine, hoping it a childhood epilepsy and after controlling with meds he will grow out of it... please let me know how you get on!

[Avigoo]

I've been reading around the internet and what both of u described in parts is similar to what i've been seeing in my almost 4 month old. Till now it was just hands but recently i witnessed her having the tremor in her head as well. We have an appt. to a pediatric neurologist about a month and half away. Meanwhile, would yo umind sharing info with me on how your babies are doing?
Thank you,
AES

[JMel]

Hi
We are experiencing the same issues (and fears) with our little four month old boy. Our posting would look pretty much word for word as yours. I hope you dont mind me asking how things have turned out for you? We are seeing a pediatric neurologist later this month, but meantime I would really appreciate your/ others input.
Kind regards
JMel