My Child Suddenly Started Shaking His Arms, Legs, and Jaw

Reader’s Question

I have a son who is 7 and a half. We have noticed just like a week ago that he started constantly to shake his arms, shake his legs, his jaw and stomach. My wife and I did not realize what was going on the first couple of days. When I say shaking I mean he is aware of his moves, he knows that he is shaking his arms and fingers and other parts of his body. This is something that he is doing every 2 seconds (except when he is asleep) and sometimes he forgets but it will not last for long. I tried to take him for walk and do whatever he likes — shopping, playing outside — but as soon as we run out of conversation he goes straight for shaking.

He justifies those moves by saying that he feels pain and therefore he needs to do that. Just like a week ago he had to extract a tooth because he had a lot of pain. The dentist, whom we regularly visit, tried to avoid the extraction for some time, but in the end he said that there is no choice.

I just want to mention that, like a year ago he started to wash his hands 6-7 times and sometimes more, per day. We tried to convince him not to do it, even that his skin began to irritate, but did not help. I read online about this problem and I used that technique of playing games with dirty hands. It helped a lot. This problem currently has been overcome even though I can see that recently, while he is having this shaking problems, I have a feeling that he has increased his hand washing as well. My wife and I are very concerned; what is causing these problems, and can we overcome this situation? How we can avoid another similar one, because I have a feeling that these problems are becoming bigger and bigger, and I am so concerned what might be next.

We have a daughter who is 10 years old, very independent and never had these problems.

We had to take my son, 1 month ago, to the optometrist and she prescribed him glasses, because we realized that he is watching TV from a close distance. He had no problems as far as wearing the glasses at home, but there were issues to convince him to wear them in public. We always tried to give him vitimins and make him happy by taking both of my children for nice vacations, at least twice a year. Both of them are attending a private school with excellent conditions and have regular conatcts with respective teachers. As far as games, they have planty of them.

So basically, what I am trying to say is that they have had all their wishes fulfilled, except one that I can’t fulfill. That one is that they have been asking me for so long to buy them a dog, but since we live in a small apartment, we have no basic conditions for that. But this is not something that they have been asking everyday. It used to be number one on their wish list, but not now.

Our Consulting Clinical Psychologist’s Reply

There are several types of shaking and tremors in children. You seem to be describing a shaking/tremor at rest — a shaking that occurs at rest but not in purposeful movement. You mention that you can play a game but when the activity is over, the shaking returns. In such situations, a medical or pediatric consultation is recommended.

You mention two additional factors that may be related to his shaking/tremors. His report of pain again tells us that a medical examination is needed. His “pain” is unusual and may actually be a type of physical discomfort rather than what adults consider pain. Seven-year-old children don’t have the word vocabulary that adults have for concepts such as pain. Children typically “hurt” or have “pain”. As adults, we might describe the sensation as pain, ache, stiffness, bloatedness, discomfort, stabbing pain, etc. From his report, he is responding to an internal sensation, and it’s important to medically evaluate that sensation.

Another factor is the presence of Obsessive-Compulsive behavior in his history. Compulsive behaviors such as hand-washing might suggest a psychological component to his symptoms. If medical examination is essentially normal, we may want to consider a child psychiatrist/psychologist.

Some additional situations that might be important:

• Medications used by the child can produce shaking/tremors as a side effect. Inform the medical consultations of all medications — including vitamins and over-the-counter medicines.
• Is there any family history of tremors?
• Many of his symptoms may be related to anxiety — including the hand-washing. While he may have everything a child would need — are his expectations/demands too high for his age? Home much emotional pressure is he experiencing?
• Specific household issues such as being unable to provide him with a dog do not create childhood shaking or tremors. As parents, when our child is experiencing some difficulties, we often conduct an intense review of our parenting — What are we doing wrong? Have we made the problem? Consider this situation in need of medical review — not parental review.

The fact that his symptoms appeared very recently suggests that we need to evaluate the situation as soon as possible. For this reason, acquire a medical consultation quickly. Following your medical consultation regarding his symptoms, your physician may require additional professional consultation or make additional referrals.