United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Has anybody ever heard a pop in your babys elbow/arm when doing ROM with them? If so why does this happen?

Yes, I absolutely remember that happening!! I know my therapist explained it to me, but I can't seem to remember why (I don't remember much these days!). I'm sure someone will be able to shed some light on the issue for you.

are you stabilizing the joint when you are doing range of motion exercises? (for example, if you are ranging the shoulder, is your hand holding her scapula in to the body?)

my son's arm does that too but in the spine somtimes when I pick him up. When I was pregnant with my first son (non bpi) I could hear popping and then when he was born we heard the popping in his spine as well.

oops. Not his arm his spine where the nerves were avuldged.

I do remember that and I was concerned as well. We were seeing her ortho so he made sure she was ok. It was pretty much gone by the time we brought her. It lasted a few weeks. It was in the elbow not the shoulder. I think they wanted to make sure it was not dislocated. I think it had to do with the imbalance of the muscle and so the joint can be a little unstable? I do remember it was something that my PT wanted the doc to look at. That was my impression.

Jody has this. It changes location, depending on what stage he is at. Went from shoulder to elbow now some fingers. I am told from OT that it is similar to a knuckle cracking since the joint remains immobile for long periods of time.

We noticed clicking in our daughter's shoulder and her OT and PT were both concerned. At our last appt. the orthopedic surgeon saw her and said it was fine. He explained that because the muscles and tendons of the shoulder were not as strong and much looser than the unaffected arm, that it was just the joint moving around more. He was not overly concerned and recommended that we make sure we stabilize the shoulder when we do range of motion exercises with her.

Carol, mom to Lucy, almost 3! (LOBPI)

Mine cracks and pops all the time. Pretty much whenever I rotate it at all. Sometimes the cracking and popping on it actually feels good because it releases some of the tension. I dont know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it is what I have always known with that arm. Once in awhile it will pop and feel like it went to far, but it always 'comes back'

Hope this helps some...I am just getting into reading about all of this, so I do not know what other people's experiences are...

Andrea, 24 robpi

I'm not sure about the elbow, but I know that fluid can build up around the shoulder joint if it's not used. That build up is usually the cause of "frozen shoulder." I'd imagine it's similar for the elbow, too, though. Lack of regular use --> fluid build up --> cracking and popping when finally moved around.

I've recently started doing exercises for my arm, and for the first three or four weeks there was near constant cracking and popping. Now there's almost none, but it really freaked out the person helping me at first, haha. Fortunately she was an athletic trainer so she knew about fluid build up (she was the one that explained it to me, actually), she was just worried that she was hurting me. The good news is that I couldn't feel a thing.

(you might still want to ask your baby's doctor about it the next time you see them)