Neck and shoulder spasms

[Nyancat]

My 8 month old has started making what look like involuntary spasms in her neck/ shoulder. It's like she's pulling both shoulders up together or, one shoulder up and dropping the ear on the same side down.

Of course I stupidly googled it and have freaked myself out. Just wondering if anyone else has any experience of this? I've booked an appt with Gp but earliest with preferred Gp (specialises in kids and from bitter experience the others are useless in my practice) is two weeks away.

Am I being stupid to wait that long? Anyone any ideas what it might be? She also has reflux, not on any medication apart from thickener for milk and happily throws up continually, including solids. She's not rolling eyes but is letting out the odd cry when it happens. It's worse when she's tired.

You're the first person I've ever seen posting about this other than me. DS started to do this at about 7 months and it was worse when he was tired too. The best tip I had on here was to video an incident (or more than once if possible) to show the GP exactly what I was talking about and so she could see whether it was something she recognised. She didn't think it was anything to worry about and he grew out of it. Now he'll sometimes (like once a month) do a movement that looks a bit like it but it seems to be voluntary now. He's just coming up for 2. I can't remember exactly when it stopped but it was a long time ago. I had also googled things like twisted neck, seizures - all sorts - and was also totally freaked out and none of it was relevant of course. Only you can judge whether it's severe enough to see a different GP, though.

Thanks for your reply, I've tried to take a video of it earlier tonight but wasn't great so ill keep trying and take that to gp. So glad your ds is ok, fingers crossed its something dd will grow out of and isn't anything more sinister.

Hi Nyancat, my son has what is believed to be Benign Sleep Myoclonus. It happens when he's tired or dropping into deep sleep. It's a series of jerks in his upper arms. Have a look here at my thread and at which looks very similar.

It's alarming but harmless. The consultant reassured me that something more sinister would generally be accompanied by a whole host of other symptoms, so if the baby is well the chances are it's benign.

Hi, you mentioned reflux & I wonder if sandifer syndrome could be a possibility? If so it should pass with reflux. It came up when my son began having some spasms at 6mo.

Please don't panic or over google. My now 15 mo has a range of movement disorders that I was convinced were seizures. If the dr is at all worried an EEG will rule seizures out quickly. It could just be a temporary movement thing that they will grow out of.

I would strongly recommend getting something on video. There are such subtleties to different movements that a dr may be able to give you some reassurance immediately. When a neurologist saw our video (much more extreme movement than this - so please dont panic that it is a major movement disorder in your case) she knew what it was straight away.

If you are really worried & GP doesn't help, I would just take the video to a&e. I have shown up before feeling guilty that I might be time wasting. Actually they were fab & totally understood why I was there.

I suspect it is prob just a short term thing that will pass.