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Startle reflex

StodreStodre member
in Preemies
My daughter was born at 31.6. She is now 9 weeks old - 12 days adjusted. I'm wondering about anyone else's experience with the Moro reflex - or the startle reflex.
She has, what I think, a big time startle reflex. She startles herself awake as she is falling asleep - arms go flying out for no apparent reason as she is just about to fall asleep. It can be totally quiet or really loud in the house - it doesn't matter.
I actually brought her the ER a couple weeks ago b/c I read on line a thing about infantile spasms & it sounded like what she was doing. The ER doc said she's too young for that and it's prob just a startle reflex. Im just wondering if she has an exggaterated startle reflex because she's a preemie.
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Re: Startle reflex

  • KTZ17KTZ17 member
    We kept DD swaddled whenever she was sleeping for a few months cause she'd always startle herself awake. I found that the swaddlepods with the zipper fit her the best when she was tiny and kept her from flailing her arms around. It's common in all newborns, as PPs said. Our DD also had this weird leg twitch that someone on this board wrote a post about and I was convinced was a sign of cerebral palsy, but our pedi reassured us that some babies just have that twitch and then it goes away, which it did. Careful with Dr. Google! Do you swaddle your DD?

    Lilypie Premature Baby tickers
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  • twodaisiestwodaisies member
    Ds had it (still does, but not quite as bad). We swaddled anytime we put him down to sleep.
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  • StodreStodre member
    I haven't been swaddling - but started to swaddle again last night. She is sleeping peacefully now :)
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  • M2M85M2M85 member
    Im not sure if her reflex got better in the last couple of months but i came across your post. Our LO was not a preemie but she did have a more pronounced reflex i thought. She was swaddled but then still had it after she started rolling around 4 mos old. We had to stop the swaddle & use a sleep sack bc of that. She ended up doing great in bc the one we used had just enough resistance in the arms that she didn't startle herself awake but could still move around. Hope this helps!
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