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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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
I'm not sure, but it seems like a myoclunus I think you need to visit a neurologist and firstly take an EEG.
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.
My sons seizures are less severe than Maddies but very similar. Maddie is a cutie! All the best.
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