Baby has stiff arms

[leah11357]

Hi,

My baby is 6 weeks old and I hadn't noticed it until my partner brought it up, but his arms are always quite stiff. They are curled up towards his chin and hands clenched almost constantly. I looked back through pictures and the left arm in particular is almost never away from this position.

They definitely can be straightened when I attempt to do so, but there is a bit of resistance.

I assumed it was totally normal and that he just hadn't straightened out his body yet, but after googling it, I've worried myself.

I had several seizures throughout pregnancy, and have just read there can be a connection between having seizures & possible cerebral palsy in newborn.

Does anyone have any experience in this? Or does this sound normal and they just take a little while to stretch out? I will contact HV and discuss next week.

The book the HV gave me for tips for things to do with babies mentions at 0 to 3 months their limbs can be stiff and recommends baby massage to help

I really should have read that book!! Hopefully it is just something as simple as that. Thank you :)

Hope so too!

Hi OP, a bit tough at the minute but might be worth having a chat to a cranial osteopath if you can. A couple of babies in our NCT group were like this and having treatment helped them. Apparently it can be because they’ve been curled up tightly in the womb for all those months. As previous poster said baby massage might also help 🙂

Hi @leah11357, do you have an update? Am in a similar position and have terrified self by googling. Hope your baby is doing well.