The shivers: Doctors please

[mikester]

So, I know a few of you out there are Doctors; for the record I have already called my son's Pediatrician and her advice was to keep an eye on it but it didn't sound like anything serious.

Okay, here goes.

My son is 8 months old (and cute as heck to boot) and he's just cut his first tooth over the weekend. He's been pretty good natured about it and generally he's a pretty good natured kid.

He eats well, sleeps well and acts well in all respects.

Recently he's started doing this odd thing though where he gets a shiver through his body (the kind where they say someone just "walked over your grave" not the cold kind). Sunday we were out for breakfast and feeding him and he would get one every few minutes. We haven't checked his tempurature at these times (we were in a resturant at the time) but if we see it again we will. The yogurt we were feeding him was a little cold and my speculation was that his new tooth my be sensitive to the cold. No telling though; the thing is while I haven't seen him do it as much as he did Sunday morning (the tooth showed up on Saturday by the way) he still does it here and there. Sometimes it's hard to tell.

Like I said, the Dr. said keep an eye on it and I'll likely call her again and prompt a look at him in person. I've got a friend who has a 4 or 5 year old who has this happen to him whenever he drinks a cold soda (calls it the shakey shakey dance).

I hope I'm just being paranoid but I wanted to run it past the Dr on the board just for an unofficial and non binding second not even real opinion.

Thanks

Here his is:

[Mulhollanddose]

If he is otherwise asymptomatic, don't worry about it.

He may just be reacting to your liberalism.

[livi]

Well, this would be the first of my 470 posts where I feel I should be able to contribute a little !!

Firstly, the most important tool for a pediatrician is actually seeing the kid in the flesh, so to speak. A verbal history will not be enough.

But. I presume he is otherwise a healthy baby, eating well, gaining weight, reaching the expected milestones in terms of motor and verbal development and just generally an energetic and happy kid ?

This episodes. How long ? Stay conscious ? Crying ? Shivering or jerking ? The whole body ? Only the limbs ? Only one side ? How is he behaving directly afterwords ? Sleepy ?

All in all, at first glance of your description, I would expect this to be normal. We get a lot of this from worried parents. Small children have a tendency to scare the crap out of their parents with the most peculiar behavior.

BTW, checking the temp is most likely worthless.

As said you would need to see the child, preferably when it happens.

Best,

[87coupe]

I'm not a doctor but I would think a simple test to see if it was tooth related would be to put something hot or cold on the tooth and see if you can reproduce the "shiver".

[mikester]

Originally posted by livi
Well, this would be the first of my 470 posts where I feel I should be able to contribute a little !!

Firstly, the most important tool for a pediatrician is actually seeing the kid in the flesh, so to speak. A verbal history will not be enough.

But. I presume he is otherwise a healthy baby, eating well, gaining weight, reaching the expected milestones in terms of motor and verbal development and just generally an energetic and happy kid ?

This episodes. How long ? Stay conscious ? Crying ? Shivering or jerking ? The whole body ? Only the limbs ? Only one side ? How is he behaving directly afterwords ? Sleepy ?

All in all, at first glance of your description, I would expect this to be normal. We get a lot of this from worried parents. Small children have a tendency to scare the crap out of their parents with the most peculiar behavior.

BTW, checking the temp is most likely worthless.

As said you would need to see the child, preferably when it happens.

Best,

Yeah, as I said he eats well sleeps well and he is reaching all the milestones somewhat "early."

He started crawling a couple of months ago and has been standing up holding on to somehting for probably 6 weeks. We're expecting him to walk soon, he seems to be in a hurry to really chase the heck out of the cat though he's pretty quick crawling after them.

Being the consumate troubleshooter I had already thought of trying to reproduce it - it's a great idea - thought about it last night as I was typing the question out and he was asleep.

Anyway, his reaction when it happens is pretty minimal - he isn't upset, he's aware as usual but it doesn't seem to affect him any more than it affects me when it happens to me. It just doesn't happen as often to me. He's not sleep or anything like that. It seems to be his whole body and not a particular side.

[mikester]

Originally posted by Mulhollanddose
If he is otherwise asymptomatic, don't worry about it.

He may just be reacting to your liberalism.

That's really probably it - do you have a re-education camp to recommend that I could attend and fix this problem?

[dhoward]

He doesn't have a wet diaper afterwards, does he?
You know, classic 'piss shiver'.

[livi]

If it consists more of a trembling rather than jerking movement, ie high frequency/short stroke, involves the whole body, remains awake and seems fine before and after - it does not sound like anything to worry about.

[lendaddy]

My son (20 months) has done this for over a year. When he gets excited he raises his arms and shivers. This may be a little different, but maybe not. It does sorta look involunary but yet not quite. I'll admit it creeps me a little, but it shouldn't. It's funny to watch and you can tell (now) that it's a byproduct of his excitement but in the beginning it was weird.

[johnco]

might have been a reaction to the food. my daughter did this everytime she tasted something she wasn't used to eating. I had many laughs giving her a piece of lemon or something sour, she loved the taste but the dudders she got were hilarious. I watched a baby do this yesterday while she was eating

[KevinP73]

Originally posted by dhoward
He doesn't have a wet diaper afterwards, does he?
You know, classic 'piss shiver'.

I was under the impression this only occured after a good binge drunk in your college years or when camping at higher altitudes.

[dhoward]

Originally posted by KevinP73
I was under the impression this only occured after a good binge drunk in your college years or when camping at higher altitudes.

Oh. Um...er...well...nevermind...

[gatotom]

this is your first child????

if it is, as long as the child is not convulsing or foaming at the mouth during a episode, pay more attention to what you are feeding him.

Just because it might taste good to you doesn't mean it tastes good to him.....that thought gives me the shivers.

By the time you have your third child, you will be charging admission to watch the show and to help offset the costs of living in this great country.

[TSNAPCRACKLEPOP]

sounds like that shiver i get when my brothers miss a gear!! lol

otherwise, he sounds normal, nervous systems are still developing. my nieces did this, kind of in a terrible "incredible hulk " shrug/shiver.

also, i still get these myself when i see some women at the lalke.

[EdT82SC]

He may just be doing it because he can. Kids do lots of things that seem wierd to us as they learn about their bodies. My daughter used to grind her teeth a lot. The doctor told us she was just experimenting. After a while she no longer did it. Right now she likes to spin aroun in circles. And walk around with her eyes closed. And make different noises, and then stick her fingers in her ears, and make the same noises again to see how they sound different. Yesterday my wife and I were singing the ABC song to her, and she was repeatedly puting her fingers in her hears, and taking them out as she listened to us. It's all just normal experimentation. Sounds like you have a great son. Enjoy!