Baby muscle spasms, due to low potassium???

[AirForceDad]

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.

[cwai]

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

[SonofaSonofaSailor]

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.    

[sjlawrence356]

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 !

[shelbs1979]

My daughter also started something similar.  How are everyone's babies doing now?

[april313]

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.  

[jennlynn1988]

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".