Baby moving arms and legs

Why Is Your Baby Flapping Their Arms?

Your little one is moving and grooving and learning more about how their body works with each passing day. Some of your infant’s movements may seem organized; others, not so much.

Arm flapping may signal that your baby is happy or excited. In other cases, it can be an early sign of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a movement disorder, or some other health condition.

Here’s how to read your child’s movements, what other signs to pay attention to, and when you should speak with your child’s pediatrician.

The youngest babies are still getting the hang of their limbs. Not only that, but their nervous system is also still developing. As a result, newborn motions are usually jerky and somewhat unpredictable.

In the first few weeks of life, you may notice big arm movements when baby is startled, for example. This is actually a reflex that will fade in time.

Older babies, on the other hand, move around much more. You may see your infant move both arms up and down at the same time or flap their hands at the wrists.

This repetitive motion — also called complex motor stereotypies — is sometimes associated with ASD, sensory issues, or other diagnoses.

However, it can also be observed in children without any of these conditions.

There’s no set pattern or timeline for how often your child may make these types of motions throughout a single day.

Researchers have studied arm movement duration in babies, and for those who follow typical development patterns, the duration of arm movements may be around 1.3 seconds per session.

You probably won’t have a stopwatch out to measure this at home, so you might pay attention to when and why your child flaps their arms as well as other symptoms your child may experience.

Arm flapping can be part of gross motor development. Repetitive behaviors tend to go away when a child is around 12 months old. For children with “atypical” development or health concerns, arm flapping may persist much longer, according to a 2017 study.

There are many possible reasons your baby may be flapping their arms — ranging from simple excitement to potential health concerns.

Noting any additional behaviors or symptoms can help you decode the root of your child’s movements. When in doubt, bring up your concerns with a pediatrician.

Early reflexes

Newborns have certain reflexes that are involuntary. The startle reflex (or Moro reflex) is present in most young infants until they reach around 3 months old.

If your baby is startled by a loud noise, large motion, or anything else, you may notice that both arms fly upward or outward before coming down again, often in a jerky fashion. Your baby’s arms may move up and down as the reflex passes and it may look a bit like flapping.

Colic

Colic is a condition where a young baby cries for at least 3 hours per day for 3 or more days per week, for 3 weeks or longer. A baby with colic may flail or flap their arms or legs while crying.

Other signs your baby may have colic include:

clenched fists
an arched back
legs drawn toward the stomach
seeming irritated when held

Colic usually happens when newborns are between 2 and 3 weeks old and may continue until your little one is 3 to 4 months old.

Excitement

Babies may flap their hands or arms because they are excited or happy. Since they do not yet have the verbal skills to express their emotions, flapping is a physical way to show how they’re feeling.

You might even notice your baby flapping their arms if they’re experiencing any intense emotion, from happiness to sadness to anger. Flapping is a self-stimulatory (stimming) motion that provides the brain with sensory input to soothe.

While stimming is associated with ASD, most people — including babies — engage in some form of stimming (rocking, fidgeting, thumb-sucking) throughout their day.

Autism

Flapping of the hands and arms is sometimes associated with ASD.

According to the same 2017 analysis mentioned earlier, various studies link arm flapping and self-stimulatory behaviors in infancy with ASD.

Other repetitive stimming motions might include:

twisting of the arms
rotating of the wrists
waving
wiggling of the fingers

The key here is that these motions continue past infancy. You may also notice other symptoms of ASD that accompany your child’s movements, such as:

communication issues (lack of eye contact, not responding to name, trouble with conversation)
sleep difficulties
other repetitive behaviors (insistence on a particular routine, very targeted interests)

Motor disorders

Children who have movement disorders have difficulty moving the way they would like to. With babies, you may notice that they are unable to move a certain way or they have involuntary movements.

Possible movement disorders include things like:

tremors, or rhythmic shaking of limbs
myoclonus, or semi-rhythmic jerking muscle movements
dystonia, or twisting or contorted movements

Other health or learning complications

Other health concerns may also lead your baby to flap their arms.

For example, a child with Angelman syndrome, a genetic condition that affects the nervous system, may have trouble with balance and other motor skills. This may cause jerky movements of the arms and stiffness in the legs.

Remember: Arm flapping is not always a reason for concern. Even if your baby is flapping their arms as part of a stimming behavior, you may not need to do anything.

It should be safe to let them continue, unless it is distracting them from play or learning or they are harming themselves or others in the process.

Watch

Infants may flap their arms and hands when they are excited or upset.

If you notice your child is flapping in response to an emotional trigger, it may simply be a physical way to express emotions. They will likely outgrow the flapping in time.

Watch to see when and why your little one is flapping, as well as if the movement stops on your cue. If your baby cannot stop, there may be involuntary movements at play that warrant medical attention.

See a medical professional

You may want to make an appointment with a medical professional if the arm flapping:

becomes more frequent
interferes with their everyday activities (like spontaneous play)
becomes harmful to your little one or others

You can talk with the doctor about any other repetitive motions your baby makes, when and why you think it happens, and any other symptoms you believe may be connected.

It may also be helpful to record a video of the movements you’re concerned about and share them with the pediatrician.

Breathe

Most children will outgrow arm flapping by their second birthdays. And the 2017 study mentioned earlier indicates that repetitive behaviors even fade sooner, often by the time a child is 12 months old.

If your child is in this age range, pay attention to the flapping but understand it’s likely part of your little one’s development. If your child continues arm flapping beyond the toddler years, be sure to mention it to their pediatrician.

There are a number of reasons why your baby may be flapping their arms.

If your infant is young, it may be colic or a newborn reflex that will soon fade away. Older babies are still learning so much about how their bodies work and may flap their arms because they’re overjoyed or feeling some other intense emotion.

However, don’t hesitate to contact your child’s doctor if you have concerns about arm flapping or if your child is showing any other signs of potential health or behavioral concerns.

Movement, Coordination, and Your 1- to 3-Month-Old (for Parents)

Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD

en español Movimiento, coordinación y su bebé de 1 a 3 meses de edad

The reflexes babies had just after birth start to disappear now as they gain more control over their movements and start to interact with caregivers and world around them.

What Can My Baby Do?

Newborns struggle to lift their heads. But as neck and upper body strength improve, they'll be able to lift their heads while on their bellies and eventually prop themselves up on their arms. Once there, they’ll hold their heads up and look around.

You also may notice your baby stretching and kicking the legs. This movement strengthens leg muscles, preparing your baby to roll over, which usually happens by 6 months of age. But be careful: Even very young babies can roll over on occasion, so it's important to never leave a baby unattended on a changing table, bed, or other high surface.

Infants grasp reflexively from birth, but during the first 3 months of life they'll begin to open and shut their hands and start moving their hands to their mouths. Your baby may be able to hold a rattle or a toy that is placed in the hand — and drop it when no longer interested in it.

Vision also starts to improve as your little one develops the ability to follow a moving object with their eyes. Then watch as your baby tries to use their arms to swing at toys.

How Can I Encourage My Baby?

Infants need to practice their skills. While babies should never sleep on their stomachs, give your child supervised tummy time during waking hours. This lets your little one practice lifting their head and strengthening the neck, arm, and shoulder muscles.

Your baby may get fussy and frustrated in this position, so keep the first tummy time sessions brief and gradually lengthen them. Always stay with your baby during tummy time.

Encourage hand–eye coordination by letting your baby reach for favorite toys while sitting on your lap or by placing them under an infant gym to bat at toys.

When Should I Call the Doctor?

Normal child development tends to follow a certain pattern. The skills that babies develop early serve as building blocks for future skills. Still, the time it takes to develop these skills can vary widely among babies.

Let your doctor know if by your baby isn't doing the following:

By 2 months:

hold their head up while lying on the tummy
open their hands

By 4 months:

grasp or hold objects put in their hands
keep their head steady while being held
lift the head and pushing up onto elbows/forearms during tummy time

Not reaching individual milestones doesn't always mean there is a problem. But talk to your doctor if you have questions or concerns about your baby's development.

Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD

Date reviewed: May 2022

A newborn baby jerks his arms and legs violently, why? Finding out the reasons

Date of writing: 07/14/2016

Reading time: 7 min

Every mother listens to every breath and looks closely at every, even the slightest movement of her newborn baby. But why is the baby constantly pulling arms and legs? How to deal with it? The movements of newborns will be discussed in our article.

Why does an infant constantly jerk its legs and arms?

Although it sometimes seems to us that the first weeks after birth, the baby mostly sleeps and does not move much, but this is not so. Trying to adapt to new circumstances and to know his body, the baby moves his arms and legs.

How to understand when everything is within the normal range, and when to see a doctor?

In the table we have collected the most common reasons why the baby jerks his arms and legs a lot

Increased tone of the limbs	After a long stay in the fetal position, the baby needs some time for the flexor muscles to relax, and the extensor muscles to come to a normal physiological state. Therefore, after birth, the baby will constantly move arms and legs. Movements, as a rule, are bilateral in nature, that is, with two arms or two legs at the same time. Everything should be back to normal by two months . If there are deviations, then they speak of a reduced or increased tone in the muscles. In this case, it is necessary to undergo a course of treatment.
Work of the digestive system	New food and the associated increased load on the stomach, intestines and other organs leads to discomfort that is still difficult for the baby to cope with, this leads to chaotic movements of the arms and legs, which are often accompanied by crying. The baby tries to press the legs closer to the tummy and thereby help digestion, but he can’t fix it, so he pulls them and cries.
Colic, gas	In the process of digesting food, babies often experience colic, gas, and pain in the tummy. Because of this, newborns tighten or, conversely, stretch their legs, pull their arms and cry. Such conditions usually disappear by 3-4 months, in some children by 6 months .
Pathology of the central nervous system	This is what all mothers are afraid of. Such terrible diagnoses as: encephalopathy, epilepsy, cerebral palsy. In these cases, the movements of the baby are very different from the norm and are accompanied by other symptoms. Chaotic eye movements/gaze at one point, protrusion of the tongue, convulsive sucking movements. These movements are called convulsions and are cause for immediate medical attention .

How can I help my baby if he jerks his arms and legs a lot?

In order to properly help the baby, you need to establish the exact cause. You should consult with a pediatrician, surgeon and neurologist.

Each of the specialists will examine the baby and give their recommendations:

Pediatrician will conduct a general examination and give recommendations on improving the functioning of the digestive system, as well as refer you to other specialists.
The surgeon will check the movement and the tummy.
Neurologist will give an opinion on the baby's nervous system.

What methods will help the baby, and in what cases it is necessary to apply this method of treatment, we will consider below in table

Massage	An excellent remedy both for colic in the tummy and for relieving muscle tone. If the crumbs do not have any serious health problems, then a young mother can do massage at home herself. In the case of muscle tone massage is good to do in the morning and evening after water procedures . Moreover, in the morning it is more intense, alternating stroking and patting with light exercises, gently bending and unbending the arms and legs, massaging the fingers. In the evening, it can be a light relaxing massage in the form of stroking the back, arms and legs, as well as the tummy. With colic, doctors and experienced mothers advise gently stroking the baby's tummy clockwise for several minutes.
Gymnastics	In case of increased muscle tone, you may be advised to consult a physiotherapist . The specialist will tell you what movements, how and in what sequence should be done so as not to injure the baby.
Baby swimming	The procedure itself is very useful, both for babies with problems in physical activity, and for absolutely healthy children. During water procedures, the heartbeat quickens, the blood is saturated with oxygen . Many doctors, answering the question of when to start swimming with a baby, say: as soon as the umbilical wound heals. Just as in the case of gymnastics, in the morning swimming can be more intense, teach the baby to relax his muscles in warm water, turn on cool water at the end, thereby hardening the baby, and in the evening, a simple splash in warm water with the addition of chamomile decoction, mint, lemon balm or lavender. Pleasant smells will soothe the baby and set him up for a sound sleep .
Medicines	Only after consultation with doctors. If the above methods can be applied, albeit with caution, but to all children, then in no case can you prescribe any medications on your own . Many neurologists with tone prescribe very serious drugs, such as Cerebrolysin, Cavinton, Actovegin, etc. For colic, Sab Simplex, Plantex, Dill water, Espumizan are most often prescribed.
Physiotherapy	In case of muscle tone in a newborn, a neurologist may prescribe paraffin and electrophoresis on legs or arms as physiotherapy .

Of course, no mother wants to think about the bad, but, unfortunately, the statistics are inexorable.

Today, more than 50% of children are born with one or another problem of the nervous system. Therefore, if the behavior of the baby is alarming, you should consult a neurologist.

Make an electroencephalogram, neurosonogram. Perhaps, with unsatisfactory results of examinations, the doctor will prescribe magnetic resonance imaging. Or, on the contrary, the results of the examinations will not reveal pathologies, then the doctor will prescribe nootropic drugs designed to stimulate the nervous system, or sedatives to relieve tension.

Regardless of the test results and doctors' prognosis, the mother should remain calm. The children's body is very plastic, most problems can be solved, modern achievements, both in medicine and in pharmaceuticals, make it possible to compensate, and often completely cure, many diseases associated with the nervous system.

Why does a baby often wake up during sleep at night or during the day

At present, the importance of sufficient sleep for a child is not in doubt. Insufficient or restless sleep not only makes children irritable or whiny, but also negatively affects the overall development of the child, and can also lead to various, including serious diseases. This is a drop in visual acuity, tremor of the limbs, headache, intestinal upset, etc. Of course, they will not occur if the child did not sleep well once, but if this happens for a long time, this is fraught with the most serious consequences.

What is the optimal amount of sleep? It depends on age: the younger the child, the more hours of sleep he needs. On the issue of specific values for the duration of sleep for an infant, one can rely, for example, on the data of the American National Sleep Foundation, which gives the following recommendations:

from 0 to 3 months - 14-17 hours;
4 to 12 months - 12-15 hours.

This is about the total duration of sleep. But, as we know, during sleep, a person alternates between different phases of sleep, each with its own duration. The sleep of a healthy person begins with the first stage of slow sleep, lasting 5-10 minutes. After that, the second stage of slow sleep begins, lasting about 20 minutes, after which the 3rd and 4th stages, again phases of slow sleep, successively replace each other for 30-45 minutes. After completion of stage 4 of slow wave sleep, the sleeper again goes through stage 2 of slow wave sleep, after which the phase of REM sleep begins, lasting about 5 minutes. The sequence described above is one cycle, and during the entire period of sleep, these cycles are repeated with a gradual decrease in the time of non-REM sleep and an increase in the duration of REM sleep.

Isolation of stages or phases of sleep is not something formal, each stage is characterized by its own characteristics of the work of all human organs and systems. In order for sleep to be truly beneficial, the child should not wake up at some stage of sleep, interrupting the cycle, i.e. the sleep cycle should be complete and such cycles for an infant should be at least 10-12 per day. Only in this case, his physiological development will proceed correctly.

But we all know very well that a child can sleep peacefully, snoring for several hours in a row, and maybe very restless. What does it depend on? First of all, the child wakes up in case of hypothermia or overheating.

The mechanism of thermoregulation in an infant is not yet well developed. In order for the child to be comfortable, his body must be in thermal balance, i.e. the generation of heat must correspond to its consumption. The formation of heat in a newborn child is due to the breakdown of brown fat (available only in children), this heat is always generated, including when the child is comfortable. If the baby begins to freeze, its blood vessels narrow and ... And this is where the difference between a child and an adult arises. The child does not have a layer of subcutaneous fat, as a result of which heat loss does not stop even after the vessels have narrowed. Therefore, having started to freeze, the child will not be able to slow down this process otherwise than by turning on another mechanism for the formation of heat for this - due to the movement of the limbs, the child begins to actively move his arms and legs and wakes up.

But the child must not overheat. However, the process of sweating is still not pronounced enough, and as a result, the child overheats very quickly. And the baby's overheating is even more insidious than its hypothermia. When hypothermia, the child cries, actively waves his arms and legs, but when overheated to critical temperatures, he practically does not betray his condition. It is completely wrong to consider an infant only a smaller copy of an adult, its thermoregulation mechanisms have not yet been developed, and therefore the main task of parents is to create the most comfortable microclimate for it in terms of temperature and humidity.

The most difficult thing is to control hypothermia and overheating of a baby during a walk in the cold season. How is it now recommended to control the comfort of the baby? Visually, by the color of the nasolabial triangle and its general condition. But when you can understand something by these signs, the child will already freeze or overheat. You can also open the baby and touch the back of his neck. And if the child is sleeping, you will wake him up, unwind him, which, due to the imperfection of his thermoregulatory processes, will most likely lead to his hypothermia.