6 year old cracking her neck

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My 6 yr old DD has discovered a habit of cracking her neck by turning from side to side. It makes a horrid internal crunch noise, loud enough to be heard across the room.

Is this something I should worry about? She can also 'crack' her ankles but I reckon that's more normal.

Help please.

The cracking of the neck is something I'd advise to get on top of. This could be harmful in the long run to her joints, and cause all sorts of painful problems.
Kids can pick up the most annoying habits sometimes - I've 3 boys myself. But I'd definitely be putting a stop to that. The ankles are probably more normal like you said but I'd also be inclined to stop that for the same reasons. Does she say why she does it?

Is she hyper mobile? Can she bend her thumb back to her wrist? If so, the cracking is giving her relief, and does no harm. Take her to the GP and ask for the Beighton test (just a series of poses to assess limb extensions).

Both my dc are hypermobile and crack all kinds of joints. The physio very unhelpfully told them it was fine and not harmful at all, so they take great delight in doing it and making me cringe at the noise. I’d discourage it but it probably isn’t doing any harm.

Both my DDs are in this boat, my younger one can even crack her spine. I can't stop them as I do the same. We are all hypermobile so it gives us relief. My DH has a tough time with 3 'crackers' in the family. We sometimes joke we could put on a sideshow at this rate.

Ooh thank you.

I don't think she's hyper mobile but I'll keep an eye on it. Don't think she's done it for a few days now.....

My grown up dd is hypermobile and has cracked her spine, neck and various other joints since she was about 6. Bloody irritating but she can't help it.

Could it be a tic my son started doing this when he was about 8 and it lasted about a year then one day he just stopped doing it

I can crack every part of my body but I’m not hyper mobile

It means she’s stiff. A 6 year old shouldn’t be stiff.

the osteopath told my boys to go ahead crack their knuckles but advised against cracking their necks. It’s because you aren’t going evenly along the spine, you’re just working one joint so the stiff joints next to it get even less movement.