Signs of a floppy baby...

[flippingstupidnickname]

Hi all, I used to post here under another name about my 4 year old DS who has low muscle tone and Autistic traits.

I now have a 6 week old DS and I'm already feeling paranoid about him suffereing from the same conditions.

Often, when I feed him he'll just let his arms dangle by his sides. If I lift the arm he offers no resistance to letting it fall and flop back at his side again. He doesn't do this all the time though.
I've also noticed that he just generally feels a bit floppy when you pick him up under his arms or even just cradling him generally. This was highlighted to me when I picked up my friend's baby of the same age and he felt rigid as a board in comparison.

Am I being paranoid, is this all just a variation on "normal" and in fact how you'd expect a 6 week old to feel?

The HV has checked him over and she felt that his tone was normal but I'm not convinced because he was crying at the time and scrunching his arms and legs up (as they do when they're crying).

I guess I'm just hoping to hear from anyone who has an NT child who had floppy arms as a baby...

Thanks and sorry for sounding slightly hysterical...(!)

congratulations I was the same with ds2, incredibly paranoid, still am to a much smaller degree even though he's 2 and so far fine! Do you have a physio or ot that can check him over? Dd3's were always happy to check ds2 over quickly. You're worried and I don't think anyone would mind you getting him checked out again, it's always best to get therapy started earlier if there are any issues.

also remember that the low body tone may not be related to your older ds' other problems. I have had two babies with quite severe hypotonia: neither is on the spectrum or has any developmental delays.

Thanks both.
TheNinja - Actually DS has a physio appointment on the 24th and she's really lovely so I'm sure she'll have a quick look at him for me, good idea

cory - That's a good point, even if littlest DS has got low tone hoepfully he won't have any of the other problems, that helps me feel a little less panicky!