7mo DS constantly pumping arms and 'rotating' hands - should I worry?

[Pedd]

Hi, My apologies if this is covered in another thread - I've scanned for the last hour and not found anything, but there are an overwhelming number of posts on here! :-)

Anyway, we're loving bringing up our first child. Our son is a smiley, charming little boy, but there are a couple of things that he does that have us slightly concerned. We're not overtly worried, but a little reassurance would be gratefully appreciated.

Our son constantly (and I mean constantly!) pumps his arms and rotates his hands like he's practising working the volune knob on a stereo. His Water babies teacher calle him 'Raver' :-)

He's been doing this for a couple of months now, and while I'm sure it's just him getting used to his body, if there's something to worry about, I'd rather know sooner rather than later.

Anyone got any thoughts?

[blondissimo]

Hi, my ds has done things like this since about 5 months - I didn't think anything of it, but then I suddenly starting thinking about the fact that he flapped his arms a lot and knew this was a sign of autism.
I told one of my friends and she said her dd is exactly the same, also spoke to health visitor and she said it could be hereditary as ds's dad is on the go all the time and needs to be active.
The minute you put my ds down on the floor he is off like a shot - rarely sits still and plays with toys etc.
I think some children just have more energy than others.
I honestly wouldn't worry.
HTH

[Pedd]

Thanks for that Blondissimo, you know when you know you're being silly but you just have to ask? :-) Feel better already.

...Just need to find some way to attach DS to a dynamo :-)

[bruffin]

My niece used rotate her hands and feet! when she was excited. She is now 19 and at university and absolutely fine.

[Pedd]

Thanks Bruffin - to be fair, DS IS excited a lot of the time, so that may be it. :-) I just really do think he's enjoying the feel of it.

He's also 'bucking' a lot on his changing mat (or anywhere he's lying down), bringing both feet in the air (so he's effectively lying at a right-angle) and then smashing them down. I think it might be an experiment in movement for him, but on a harder surface I'd expect it to hurt. The smile on his face tells me that it mustn't though. He lets us know when he's in pain.

[blondissimo]

Pedd - how old is your ds?

[Jenbot]

DD still doing the hand rotating thing at 10 months corrected. All the time!
A woman came up to me in the street and told me her DD did it and she has dyspraxia, so I should be aware of that, but I'm not really worrying about it. It's probably nothing!

[Pedd]

blondissimo - he's 7 months. Ironically, since I've posted the original post he seems to have calmed down on the hands.

Jenbot - thanks for your reply - you're right, it probably is nothing. Sometimes I think my parents are amused at the number of things we have to fret about these days...