5 Month Old Freaking Me Out!

My SIL's son did this. Not to scare you because their baby is fine and this may not even apply to you but this is what they found with their son.
They finally figured out he was having seizures.
Once he was put on medication he didn't have seizures any more.
Note when he has the seizures, how often & exactly what happens (eyes rolliing back etc.) and call the doctor.
Don't let them just blow you off.
Ask for tests if you have to.
It took them forever to diagnose it but he was put on medication and is fine now! He's 6.
Try not to worry but make an appt w/your doctor.
Sending you love & hugs.

That would scare me too. My first thought was a slight seizure (they aren't all elaborate ) nonetheless the doc needs to know. She's young and could still be learning to control them as well as her movements so it could be nothing as the other moms have said. I would call anyhow at least for your peace of mind! Good luck mama

if his lids were open and you saw the whites of his eyes for longer than normal, I'd be worried... but if his lids fell to half open as his eyeballs rolled up and he closed his eyes before opening them at normal gaze... it's a falling asleep and forcing yourself back awake kind of thing. The tenseness... may be a quirk used when anxious or upset.

Definitely, if YOU feel something is wrong, you should always feel validated to see a pediatrician.

My husband was totally freaked out about this too, but my daughter did the eye rolling every time when she was nodding off as a baby (also often when nursing...) and it was perfectly normal.
Bring it up with your ped, but honestly sometimes if they say it's not a big deal... it's just that, not a big deal.

Good luck.

When my older daughter was around 6-7 months old was doing same thing right before she was gonna fall asleep, and when I first saw her, I also freaked out. But then Iearnt it is very normal for the eyes to rolle like that when the babies (even us grown ups) are falling asleep, or are tired.
I don't think it is seizures, as Mama Lucky said, because as I know if the baby has seizures it will have tremors too.
Don't worry, in the first several months the babies do somethimes some strange things.
Best wishes!
L.

Yes, it is normal. Easiest way to check- you can't "wake" someone out of a seizure by touching/patting/squeezing their hand. What you are describing is probably myoclonus or sleep-induced clonus. Think about falling asleep and jerking awake because you felt like you fell or stepped off a drop. Same thing. My first son had it quite frequently when he was a baby, stopped by age 2. My younger son gets shaky sometimes when waking out of deep sleep, a similar phenomena. Certainly worth mentioning to the ped, but if he responds to your touch by stopping the behavior, I would not worry :)

It could be many things
*seizures
*there is an eye disorder that causes eyes to "jump" but that is more pronounced so doubt that.
*a new discovery by the baby - my daughter crossed her eyes, I saw it, my mother in law saw it and my husband saw it, all on separate occasions. Turns out that she did not have an eye problem, she did it once, one of us reacted to it, and she thought it was a pretty cool thing to do since obviously WE liked it and all. Just like when they smile for the first time we all coo and smile back, they may like the reaction and just do it for that reason.

the tenseness is common, it's a reflex actually that young, and they will still do it when they get older till almost 2 1/2 lots of kids get the whole body tenseness when they are very excited.

Because there is a possibility of it being something more then just because videotape it when you see it happening again. This way you have visual documentation to show the doctor instead of just words.

It may be nothing but try to schedule an appointment with the pediatrician before christmas so it can put your mind at ease for the holiday. I wouldn't wait and honestly it would freak me out too. If your doctor is decent they will get you in on monday. Keep us posted.

My daughter did that when she was around 18 months old. My brother died of epilepsy at 21 years old just four days before my daughter was born, and I have several other family members with epilepsy, so needless to say I FREAKED about it. I'd noticed it a few times over several days and then one morning she did it a whole bunch so I rushed her to Children's Memorial where they admitted her to the epilepsy unit to do an overnight observed EEG of her. She was not having any seizure activity - yay! With that cleared they didn't think it was anything, but suggested seeing an opthalmologist just to get the all clear. We saw a pediatric opthalmologist who was very thorough and didn't see any sign of eye problems or brain tumor. Shortly after all this she stopped doing it. Sometimes kids just do freaky things. My daughter seemed to do this mostly when she was tired.

Looking back I wish I hadn't waited until I was so concerned that I rushed her into the ER. I should have taken her to the doctor to get a referral for the next step. Either way, if you're concerned the two things I'd look into are neurology and othalmology. Make appointments with pediatric specialists in those fields just to get their opinion and know that everything is OK.

Good luck!