Does anyone's baby flap their arms during excitment?

ThebabyK

Just wondering until what age it's normal for them to flap their arms.
My son does it every time when he is excited but he does it more in hitting style, as if he is trying to fly but arms facing forward as if he is playing drums with his hands. He also like to look at his hands at face level sometimes. But not for long, just while he is playing he'll notice them stare at them for about 10-15 seconds and continue playing. Also he likes to scratch all types of things, especially our carpet.

Is all this normal?

Otherwise he is a very active baby, babbles a lot, says mama, dada, nana. Has very good eye contact with everyone he meets not just parents. Smiles all the times and is meeting his milestones on time.

If you are reading this please do drop a line, the more answers the better so i can to compare.

Thanks in advance.

Zimger

Yes, it is very common. They are learning about their body and how it works.

thatoneredhead

The way you wrote this makes me think you're wondering about stimming with autism

Im no baby development expert, but Ive seen babies do this all the time. I imagine your carpet just feels cool to him. Id say he is just exploring. My little guy's arms get going when he is scared or excited. All of my friends' babies do the slapping thing too.

I have a brother who is very autistic who does the arm flapping and jumping when hes excited. Actually, my husband (who I suspect has just a touch of asperbergers) shakes his hands anytime he gets passionate about something. There's a definite difference in a quirk and stimulation type stuff.

My other little brother (who isnt autistic at all) does the arm flapping and jumping just like his older brother. He just thinks it's how we get excited around here

liz37

All totally normal. If you get the Baby Book by Dr. Sears, it's all in there. They study their hands because they look cool and do cool things. The flap their arms when they lose the tonic neck reflex.

Signals for autism won't come into play until toddlerhood.

HTH!

Liz

BiscuitEater21

LOL babies are just weird in such a wonderful way! Sounds like you have a perfectly normal baby to me, and I just have the one LO. He does the exact same things and has been doing some of those things you stated for quite a while now! He's a tad over 5 months now(:

ThebabyK

This is why I love this board
Thanks to all for sharing your experience with loved ones and your opinion.
You ladies made me feel so much better lol.  It was driving me crazy that I did not know what they meant for sure. (First time mom statement lol )

Yes, my concern was autism but i guess i can not let every weird thing he does drive me crazy and instead enjoy every moment he is developing

Thanks so much.

starbound6

Yep, totally normal.  Mine does this too.

mtbmama

Mine started doing this the other day!  She was slapping her belly like a drum in the tub.  Now she does it on the change table too.  

lucylove619

It's definitely normal! What's not normal is when a child does not move on to the next stages of development. I do autism evals on young kids as one of my clinic placements this semester and one of the associated behaviors is mouthing objects - totally normal for a baby but not for a three year old child. Right now our babies are just fascinated with their bodies and new objects and have limited ways to express that. When they don't develop other expressive behaviors is when you might start to be concerned. There is nothing at this age that would be considered a red flag for autism, so try not to worry!

mkflower3000

I think DD does it too. She's still young enough that I'm not always sure what her behaviors mean, but she definitely likes to flap her arms and kick when someone's playing with her to chatting to her!

ThebabyK

lucylove619:

It's definitely normal! What's not normal is when a child does not move on to the next stages of development. I do autism evals on young kids as one of my clinic placements this semester and one of the associated behaviors is mouthing objects - totally normal for a baby but not for a three year old child. Right now our babies are just fascinated with their bodies and new objects and have limited ways to express that. When they don't develop other expressive behaviors is when you might start to be concerned. There is nothing at this age that would be considered a red flag for autism, so try not to worry!

Thanks, this definitely makes me feel absolutely at peace.