Advertisements
We have 6 month old fost/adopt infant. She has a profound neurological injury, she cries alot. I have had her to the doctor, they checked her out, blood work, urinalysis, chest and abdomen xrays. She is medically fine. I notice that most of her crying starts with what looks like a muscle spasm, she will be totally relaxed and suddenly her whole body sort of curls in and she starts to scream, I pick her up and rock her and it slowly subsides. This can happen a couple of times a day or every 15 minutes or so. Is there anything that can help this.
Like
Share
That sounds alot like Infantile Spasms. Two of my babies have them. They are painful for them. Even with medication, my babies still have multiple clusters a day. They have them worse whn they first wake up. Poor baby :( The characteristic symptoms of infantile spasms are, usually, rapid, though generally not violent , muscular contractions or extensions of limbs or other parts of the body. The spasms last one to two seconds and occur in clusters ranging from a few to more than 100 at a time. Infants may experience up to 60 clusters a day. The episodes rarely occur during sleep but are common in the early morning and just after naps.The following are behaviors or symptoms that might occur in what is classified as infantile spasms or West syndrome:[LIST][*]Repetitive forward head nodding or bobbing[*]Bowing from the waist when sitting[*]Drawing up of knees when lying down[*]Extending/stiffening the neck, trunk, arms and legs[*]Crossing arms across body as if self-hugging[*]Thrusting arms to the side, elbows bent[/LIST]Infants may cry and show irritability during or after a flurry of spasms.Spasms are easily missed, especially if they occur singly or in small or infrequent clusters. Other potential symptoms that parents might notice are a loss of muscle tone, loss of head control or reaching ability, loss of eye contact, inattention to sounds, lack of responsiveness, poor smiling, or decrease in alertness. These are the worst type seizures on kids due to how often they occur. I'm guessing that your baby has had EEG's and MRI's?
Advertisements
This sounds very much like what it could be. She had an MRI and EEG initially after her injury and she is to have them repeated in September. Do all brain injured chidren cry alot, at first she just slept and slept, now that she is awake more she is quite cranky. Our physical therapist said many of her clients cry excessively. I feel so bad for her because there does not seem to be anything I can do except rock and rock.
Lyla was shook at 4 onths old, spent a month in the hospital. We got her from the hospital at 5 months old. For the first 2 weeks she screamed constantly, only taking 1 to 2 hour naps at best. If she heard a mans voice it would make her cry worse. I had to sleep in a chair holding her for those 2 weeks. After those first weeks, something changed and she stopped crying as much, was able to tolerate a mans voice and actually let my hubby hold her. What we learned was that the hospital had her in a semi coma so that her brain would try and heal some, and it didn't have to work as hard. The crying could have been her coming off the meds...no one was able to say yea or nay on that one. My two boys were also shook(6 weeks and 2 months), but we didn't get them soon after the abuse.. They were 3 yrs and 4 yrs old didn't cry with us. My baby girl was born with brain damage(got her at 18 months old) and cried nonstop for 2 months, until we figured out that she was literally drowning from asperateing. Once we got her Gtube, and began to get healthy, she stopped crying. It's so hard trying to figure out why our babies are crying. It could be anything..from a headache to gas. I know this dosen't help much :(
They sound like seizures to me also (infantile spasms). The other thin,g and you are right at the point where this would happen, is that after a brain injury, healing occurs until its healed as much as its going to be and then you are left with the permanent scar. THe scar tissue can cause now issues that did not exist at the time of injury or even for many months after it. That's my total non medical jargon version of it. My DD had no seizures for a year after her stroke. And then they started getting worse and worse (up to 100 a day). I was totally freaked out that she was on the verge of a giant seizure that would kill her and the doctor told me its super common to start having neurological problems after the brain has completely healed from an injury.
I would set up a pediatric neurologist appointment and until the appointment keep a journal of the episodes. There are lots of meds that can make a huge difference not only with the crying jags but also with the constant crying!
Advertisements