United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

my daughter has been very fussy since birth. if she is awake, she is crying. at first i just thought it was normal newborn crankiness, but i am starting to wonder if her arm is causing her pain. is there any way to tell? does anyone have any experience with this? her pediatrician told me that she has acid reflux, but i find that hard to believe because she is breast fed. maybe i'm just freaking out... i don't know. any insight would be much appreciated. thanks!

Hi there,

We experienced the same thing with our daughter for about 4 months or so. She was extremely sensitive and seemed to cry a lot for no reason at all. I breastfeed as well and was told to eliminate all dairy and legumes from my diet, which did seem to help but didn't eliminate the crying. I believe in my heart of hearts that my daughter was experiencing pain, too (the doctors will tell you that they don't). My OT was the only person to state that she was probably not in pain as much as she was sore (think about injuring yourself and having scar tissue, etc.) I'm no doctor but I think it's reasonable that there would be some pain. My daughter no longer cries the way she did when she was a newborn so it does get better...good luck!

My son, now 11 months, did the same thing. He was also breastfed. It took about four months before he stopped crying all the time. I didn't think much about it until i read your post. Maybe it takes about that long to stop being sore. He had a lot of bruising after his birth. Maybe the smaller injuries needed that much time to heal before they stopped hurting. You should try, with your dr.s permision, to give your baby some infants tylenol or something. See if that helps.
Breonna
Joseph's mama, LOBPI

Given that many TBPI patients report shooting pains and other sensations during nerve regeneration, I don't think it's farfetched to assume that our kids experience unpleasant or at least unfamiliar nerve sensations during nerve regeneration.

It would be interesting to track injured children's fussiness as compared to when they start to have functional return. I know Joshua was extremely fussy and super sensitive for the first 3-4 months of life, and if I remember right, it did start to go away about the time he started getting functional return in his shoulder (his hand was also affected and gradually recovered over the first 2-3 months).

So yes it might be a kind of pain, but probably more from the nerves regenerating and function returning, not from any muscle damage or trauma, which would certainly have healed by 1-2 months old.

Kate

With our daughter, there were periods of a couple of days that you could tell she was in pain. She was always fussy in the evening and had a lot of spitting up, but those days that seemed bad were weird. If we bumped her arm or she got new movement she would scream for like 5 seconds then quit. I could almost equate it with that feeling you get when your foot falls asleep. My OT said this made sense because it was nerves regenerating and it coincided with new movement. Also I was told by someone that newborns equate almost any kind of pressure with pain because they are just not used to being touched or handled and it is almost instinctive to cry at the least little thing. Kayla was very sensitive to everything and cried about the littlest things.

Ashley, Kaylas Mom, 7 mos. ROBPI

Now that I think of it, my son would jump like an ant bit him or something and cry out for a few seconds. We thought he might have been having sezures. His fussiness ended when he regained shoulder, triceps movement. Very interesting!
Breonna

Juliana had this as well. She was much more difficult than my three older kids. Plus when she was napping she would suddenly wake up and cry out and then go back to sleep. She had to sleep in her snugglie seat and not laying flat. We found out later on that she had a partially paralyzed diaphragm too. I breast fed all of my kids, but had to stop with her...she had major sucking issues (she also drooled like crazy) and I switched to a bottle with a special nipple.

Her "fussiness" stopped after her nerve graft surgery. I was told by the old staff at TCH that she was getting shocked by the attempts by the nerves to regenerate. She was like a new child after surgery.

claudia


Message was edited by: claudia

My son was fussy too. He was my fourth child and was very hard to tolerate somedays. It wasn't hard to calm him, hw liked to be picked up and stroller rides, but he was a all around crank. He didn't cry alot just cranky. He didn't like to be flat on his back either. He preferred to be standing. He too has a partiallly paralyzed diaphram. He did get "BETTER" after primary surgery too !

Gayle mom of Brandon 9 ROPBI

As others have posted, I could ditto all of their posts. Maia had nerve surgery at 7 months and immediately after surgery she was a brand new child. We were amazed and shocked at the same time. I can't imagine the level of pain she had her first 7 months of life for there to be such a change.

Brayden was the same way. They also broke his collar bone. So he was scream hysterically if you touched him at all. He hated to be changed (clothes and diaper) and he was very unhappy if you didn't swaddle him. That seemed to be the only thing that comforted him. He too would jump and cry out in his sleep. He began to be a new baby at about 4 months. That is when he began to regain some function.I can't remember exactly what functions it was without looking back in OT notes. But I agree that he was a very unhappy baby and was in pain for atleast 4 months. At the time we all assumed it was pain from the broken collar bone but now that I read everyones posts I think it might be both the broken bone and the damaged nerves. Well I guess I better go. Very interesting.

Ashley, mom to Brayden ROBPI 4yrs