Hey There Shaky Shaky

For those that do not know, Noah has been seeing a pediatric neurologist. About 10 weeks ago, I began to notice that Noah was having small tremors or shaking. I first thought that he was just getting startled easily. After seeing more and more of these "shaking" episodes, my motherly instinct kicked in and I knew I had to get this checked out. I will admit I was scared! Scared that something could be wrong with my beautiful, otherwise healthy baby boy.

My first step was to take Noah to see, our family physician, Dr. Raben. At his appointment Dr. Raben said that he did not believe that Noah's "tremor-like" shaking episodes were seizure in nature due to the way I was describing them. However, because he is a wonderful doctor, he decided to make a referral to a specialist just to make sure!

Our next step was going across the river to St. Louis Children's Hospital to visit with our new neurologist, Dr. Mar. Noah received a very thorough head to toe examination which reveled that developmentally he is right on track. Dr. Mar's exact words were, "He is a very strong healthy boy! These jerking episodes are common. We see this in babies and they do outgrow them." I loved hearing those words come out of her mouth. They were very reassuring to me. Before we left she said that she wanted to have Noah get an EEG to confirm her diagnosis.

This past Friday, Noah went in for his EEG (a test that studies the brain's electrical activity) When we arrived, my initial reaction was "Please God. Please let my baby be okay." After seeing all the kids in this hospital, I realized that I have been so blessed. I am sure that there were plenty of mothers there that would have rather been in my shoes. Noah did a good job and tolerated the test/procedure well!

Monday, I received a phone call from Dr. Mar saying that Noah's EEG was normal. This test was able to confirm that Noah does not have any seizure activity. She said that this test revealed that Noah is experiencing what she called Sleep Myoclonic Jerks. It's something that should resolve on its own without any kind of treatment. She said that she is still going to follow up with Noah in January to make sure all is well. Until then, I will continue to love on my little man and thank God for everything he has blessed me with including my healthy Baby Noah.


Here is a website for you to view in case you wanted to read up on Sleep Myoclonic Jerks. I found this to be a great resource! http://www.indianpediatrics.net/jan2001/jan-81-83.htm