Ankle clonus in 3 month old

[worriedparent]

Hi- I am a new member of this forum.

The other night, I was touching my 3 month old son's feet while he slept on my lap. When I pointed the toes up toward his head, his foot made a rhythmic pulsing movement. The other foot did the same thing. Since then, I've tried to reproduce the movement- sometimes it doesn't happen, sometimes the foot pulses a couple of times. Today, it pulsed about 12 times. (Whenever it happens, his knee is bent and his thigh is rotated away from the body.)

I believe this is called ankle clonus and can be indicative of a neurological disorder. Is this ever considered an expected finding in a child of this age?

I have a call into my pediatrician but he is out of the office.

Thanks in advance for any info.

[WorkinMom]

Babies are born with this and it subsides over time - don't know the specific age but do a search and see what you come up with. Don't worry to much. Enjoy your baby ;) I know it's nerve racking. Is there any reason for you to be concerned? (ie- traumatic birth, other issues,etc?)

Best Wishes to you
Jennifer

[worriedparent]

Thanks for your response, Jennifer. My online searches made me more nervous as I couldn't find reference to this as a normal exam finding.
To answer your question- I had a high risk pregnancy, previous miscarriages, and hypothyroidism that wasn't diagnosed or treated until my 6th week.

[WorkinMom]

Fewer than 5-10 beats of ankle clonus may be present in healthy neonates

copied and pasted this from a site.

Did you ever get a call back from the doc?

[RathyKay]

I don't know anything about ankle clonus. I hope your doc got back to you to reassure you. It sounds like you had a rough pregnancy, but I'm not sure if your son was a premie? Perhaps an evaluation by a developmental pediatrician to check his milestones? Please try and enjoy your son.

[Trishmomof4]

I know it is hard after a difficult pregnancy to not look at everything like it is something and sometimes it is something and sometimes it's not. Try not to worry to much about the what ifs the important thing is that you have your son enjoy him. I hope you have heard back from the ped and it was good news {{{{{{{{Hugs}}}}}}}}