scary morning - jerking movments anyone else?

My guys have had pretty bad colds for about a week now. They have had the runny nose and junky cough. They finally seemed to be getting better yesterday. Then last night at 4:45 am Josh woke up screaming. He had a fever and I gave him tylenol. When he was in my arms his whole body jerked (kinda like you do when you are just about asleep, but you wake yourself up because your whole body jerks). I thought this was odd, but finally got him settled down and back to sleep. He slept about another hour and woke up screaming. I gave him Ibuprofen, his fever was 102. Then he proceeded to have more of these whole body jerk movements and would scream after. I had called the clinic to make an appt already, but got nervous about these "mini" seziure like events. So I called the nurse line and they reassure me and I brought him in an hour later. turns out he has really bad ear infections (both sides). He has never had an ear infection before, so this is pretty strange to have the first one at 2 years of age. Anyways, they think the jerking was either related to the fever or pain. He has one or two more episdoes, but has stopped for now. But his fever is coming up again now despite tylenol and Ibuprofen. So we'll see what happens.

My question is has anyone else had kids with whole body jerks when they are sick? It's so strange. I know kids can have febrile seizures, but I have never seen this before. Any similar stories would be appreciate. I'm just a bit worried (and I am a pediatric nurse for goodness sakes!) Thanks!

 

My guys have had pretty bad colds for about a week now. They have had the runny nose and junky cough. They finally seemed to be getting better yesterday. Then last night at 4:45 am Josh woke up screaming. He had a fever and I gave him tylenol. When he was in my arms his whole body jerked (kinda like you do when you are just about asleep, but you wake yourself up because your whole body jerks). I thought this was odd, but finally got him settled down and back to sleep. He slept about another hour and woke up screaming. I gave him Ibuprofen, his fever was 102. Then he proceeded to have more of these whole body jerk movements and would scream after. I had called the clinic to make an appt already, but got nervous about these "mini" seziure like events. So I called the nurse line and they reassure me and I brought him in an hour later. turns out he has really bad ear infections (both sides). He has never had an ear infection before, so this is pretty strange to have the first one at 2 years of age. Anyways, they think the jerking was either related to the fever or pain. He has one or two more episdoes, but has stopped for now. But his fever is coming up again now despite tylenol and Ibuprofen. So we'll see what happens.

My question is has anyone else had kids with whole body jerks when they are sick? It's so strange. I know kids can have febrile seizures, but I have never seen this before. Any similar stories would be appreciate. I'm just a bit worried (and I am a pediatric nurse for goodness sakes!) Thanks!

 

Do you think it could have been bad shivers like you get when running a fever? I know that when I'm tired or sick, I get that cold feeling that you can't seem to shake and it causes me to kind of jerk/shiver periodically.

I hope he starts feeling better fast.

Angela

 

No experience with that with mine yet...but wanted to ask if you thought it might be due to the ear infections. I know that when you have an ear infection your balance can be knocked off and with double the ear infection and at that age, MAYBE he is getting one of those "falling into a deep sleep, feel like I am falling" twitches? I used to get them all the time when I was little. I don't know...hopefully it is nothing. Shivers sound very possible too! Hope they are better soon!!! Mandy

 

Yes - one of my girls had the "twitches" during one fever episode, but never during any other fevers, weird. It scared me. I took her to the ER because I had never seen it before and both my girls were famous for many ear infections. Her fever wasn't that high, maybe 103. The ER docs didn't really seem to care at all about the twitches; said it can happen w/ fevers. It turned out she had a urinary tract infection. Tylenol or Ibuprofen reduced the fever and got rid of the twitches.

 

One of my son's woke up screaming at 2am on Xmas morning jerking and shaking with a fever of 39.3 Cel - we panicked and rushed him staright to the emergency room and the doc told us he was just teething and gave him some pain relief - it was rather embarassing (although I still don't buy that a baby could be that unhappy and unwell just from teething - but what do I know).

 

quote:
Originally posted by DebbiesTwins:
Yes - one of my girls had the "twitches" during one fever episode, but never during any other fevers, weird. It scared me. I took her to the ER because I had never seen it before and both my girls were famous for many ear infections. Her fever wasn't that high, maybe 103. The ER docs didn't really seem to care at all about the twitches; said it can happen w/ fevers. It turned out she had a urinary tract infection. Tylenol or Ibuprofen reduced the fever and got rid of the twitches.


Thanks! It's good to know someone else has gone though this too. It was scary! Josh had a few more minor twitches yesterday, but none today. The strange thing is that he still has a fever of 102 which is what his fever was when this started. So maybe it's more pain related. We have been alternating tylenol and Ibuprofen every 3 hours around the clock, so his pain is better controlled now.

 

quote:
Originally posted by ads:
Do you think it could have been bad shivers like you get when running a fever? I know that when I'm tired or sick, I get that cold feeling that you can't seem to shake and it causes me to kind of jerk/shiver periodically.

I hope he starts feeling better fast.

Angela


No this was definatly different from shivers. It wouldn't have scared me otherwise. Thanks for the well wishes. We are on day two of abx, and he seems about the same so far. Hopefully in the next day or two the fever will come down somewhat!

 

On Dec. 2nd, my son woke up from a nap with a high fever. I sat on the couch with him because he was pretty limp. I thought I felt a couple of "shivers". My husband couldn't feel them and he too thought it was just shivers from being so hot (103 degrees), so stupid us we put a blanket on him. Well, my husband goes to run and errand and pick up ibuprofen (we had already given him tylenol). After he left, my son started seizing. It was a febrile seizure. So I'm wondering maybe he was kind of having a light seizure or the beginning of one and the medicine or some action on your part (like taking off excess clothes) caused it to subside? I would keep the tylenol/ibuprofen going. We were told anytime he runs a fever now to keep the tylenol/ibuprofen in him for 48 hours. BTW he also had an EEG. They were able to determine that he is not susceptible to seizures when he does not have a fever (only when he has them). So if you want to take it further, you might see a neurologist.