Baby tilting head

[Riven1993]

Hello,

Sorry in advance for the long post.

At around 7.5 months, my baby started tilting his head to his right shoulder. It wouldn’t be jerky but he would do this several times in a row. It first happened on a Saturday and I was scared it may be seizures so we went to a&e.

They checked inside his ear and found that he had an inflamed ear but they wanted to get him checked out by the pediatric assessment until. They mentioned infantile spasms, even though they though it was unlikely due to his traumatic assisted birth.

The unit said they didn’t think it was this (they saw videos of him, checked him over etc) but did say that his ear was inflamed.

I called my GP on the Monday who saw him and said he had an ear infection in his right ear and she thought the head tilting it was his way of itching or showing agitation. He ended up having 3 rounds of antibiotics (amoxicillin and fluoxocillin).

He was checked out again and the ear infection had cleared up in his right but now they said he had glue ear in his left (as he had started tilting his head to both sides).

Since the infection has cleared up and as has the glue ear, he’s still doing it. The GP referred him to the pediatric medicine at the hospital to check him out. He’s been seen by 2 GP’s, five times and then also the A&E doctor and the assessment unit registrar- none of them think it’s anything sinister. We’ve also had our 9 month review with the HV who knows the story.

We’ve been told the referral could take until the end of September (this has been on going for over 2 months) and even then, the referral may not be accepted as baby (touch wood) is otherwise well in himself and developing well.

He doesn’t go vacant when he tilts his head, there’s no rhyme or reason and some days are worse than others.

I’m just wondering if anyone else has had their child bring their head to their shoulder? It isn’t wry neck as it’s not constant.

I don’t know if it’s something further in his ear that the GP can’t see or if it’s habit or his teeth or something neurological (which panics me greatly).

I will chase the referral before the end of September either way

I've not experienced this sorry @Riven1993.

Have you posted about this before? Just wondering if it's you or another MNer who's LO is doing something similar?

no, I’ve not posted about it before. I can’t seem to find many threads about it either @PritiPatelsMaker

Anyone?

Are there any other teething signs like red cheeks or drooling?

I ask bevause my DD twitches her head when she has a tooth coming through. Its like a one sided nod. I first noticed it at around 7 months and was puzzled, googled and found infantile spasms. I ended up being so anxious I took her to a&e and she saw a neurologist who examined her and said it was unlikely as she was so healthy and developing so normally in every other regard. She had an EEG which came back completely normal and soon stopped doing it. However a week or so later her first tooth popped through. Then several weeks later the exact same thing happened again and another tooth popped through. My HV thinks it's just something she does to sort of 'shake' the pain away for a bit.

I'd push for an EEG if you can as it set my mind at rest massively (they can tell there and then if its IS)

@TheSmallestOneWasMadeline thanks for your response. He got his two bottom teeth at around 6 months and we’ve been thinking for a while that his top ones are coming through. Currently, there’s a lot of fingers in mouth, bit of snotty nose etc etc so it’s not beyond the realms of possibility.

I will definitely mention the EEG when (hopefully) the referral is picked up. I think so far (touch wood) doctors don’t think it’s IS but I’d rather have him looked over for everything. The birth trauma we had makes me far more worried, too.

I could have written this! Did you ever find out what was going on (if anything?) I'm having the exact same thing with my baby she's 8 months old next week and it started around 7 months?
I thought it was her teeth?
Xx

@emispregnant2021 just come on this thread to ask the same thing!!!! My son has started doing this too very similar, doesn’t go vacant or anything just randomly lunging his head to the right and forwards kind of diagonally. Off to the doctors today for some advice. Wondering if it’s teething or ear infection? Is it still happening for you? Xx

I’m having the same issue with my 9 month old. He has started nodding his head towards his right shoulder. Has anyone got any explanation? Thank you

@Celine123a still no explanation here just seems to do it randomly now and then! Cx

hi! We are doing an EEG on Wednesday. Have you guys done that?

Sorry, I know this is old, just wondered if any of you got any answers or if your babes just stopped doing this in time?

I posted on this at the time, my daughter is 2.5 now, healthy and doesn't do this anymore. There was seemingly nothing on different forums about it at the time but I've seen a few posts on MN/reddit parenting forums since of people experiencing the same and it usually turns out to be nothing.

I'd always go for the option of seeing your GP if your worried though, but it's likely fine in the absence of any other worrying symptoms.

@idriselbasmrs much like @TheSmallestOneWasMadeline, my son is also now 2.5 and he just stopped doing it.

Pediatrics didn’t take the referral in the end but by the time the response came back to say that, he had stopped doing it.

Definitely get checked out and persevere to give yourself reassurance.

My son had it between 9 months and 2.5 years old. We went to 3 doctors, first one diagnosed it was infantile spasms and wanted to treat it immediately, but I wanted a second opinion first, as the treatment can be harmful.
Second doctor diagnosed it as benign myoclonus and told us we shouldn't worry.
Third doctor (reference in epilepsy) said it wasn't possible to actually diagnose it, but it sure was not something worrying.
Curiously enough, after the head tilting stopped, my son started to show signs of autism.
He's 6 now, autism symptoms vanished along the years, but I believe he'll soon be diagnosed as having ADHD. He's likely also gifted.
He's done several tests when the head tilts began, and the only alteration detected was "rolandic spikes" during one of his EEGs.
Some studies relate that brain activity to ADHD.
Anyway, to anyone facing this, I recommend ruling out infantile spasms, because that is really serious.