Rocking

My daughter rocks back and forth ALL.THE.TIME! She rocks on soft things such as the couch, charis, car seat, bed. She will sit down and rock her self forwards and then back into the couch and will repeat this over and over and over and over again. I constantly tell her to stop for her head will fall off! She will stop, look at me and then keep on going as if I didn't say anything. We will have been out all morning and sh won't have rocked one bit, we come home she throws off her shoes and jacket and high tails it to the couch to start her rocking.

She has been doing this since she was a year old or so....and she is just shy of 3 now. I have done extenssive research on this topic and she doesn't meet the criteria of any developmental or cognitive delays, but it still has be a tad worried. The only thing that I can think of is that she was addicted to her swing for the first 9 months of her life (at which point she grew out of it).

As a parent, I don't want to go looking for problems that aren't there....but in the same breath, feel like I need to be an advocate for my daugther when she can't be for herself. Ya know?!

Not sure if I should be bringing this to a doctors attention or if I should foster it and get her a rocking chair if this is just her means of soothing (similar to that of a child with a soother or blanket or a toy)....

What would you do if you were in these shoes? Or if you have been in these shoes....what did you do?!

Thanks ladies!!

 

Sounds to me like it could be Sensory Processing Disorder.

DS2 has it and he too loved his swing,bouncy chair and jumperoo. He used to rock but not to the extent of your DD.

The above site has a check list. See if anything sounds familiar.

 

Both my girls, now 4 years old, did this since they were able to and still do it rarely at night. It was always a sign that they were getting tired. I brought it up to their pediatrician several times and he was never concerned. He said they would grow out of it and, slowly, they are. If they're aren't any developmental problems I wouldn't worry.

 

I am in your shoes, exactly. My one son started doing this around 1 year old and while it all but disappeared for a while, he is now doing it again.

When it began, we were pretty worried. Our boys were early preemies so we were hyperaware of every little thing during that first year. We happened to still be going to appointments at a specialty center at our children's hospital, so I brought it up to them. They were not too concerned about it because it is not accompanied by any other strange or related behaviors. Never has been. They did evaluate him for sensory processing disorder, but he didn't have any other symptoms except this one. Also, autism or anything on that spectrum was quickly ruled out. I never even suspected that.

Like your DD, my son rocks against soft, familiar things... his high chair was a favorite (long gone now), his crib (also gone now), the couch, his car seat, etc... It seems to be associated with both fatigue and self-comfort, maybe even boredom. I can easily get his attention while he's rocking, but it doesn't stop him from doing it. Now that he's older I ask him why he does it, but he's only just 3 so I'm not getting any good answers yet.

In June we were so happy when we transitioned them to toddler beds because it stopped! The nighttime rocking was always by far the worst. If he'd wake at any point during the night (which he always does), he'd rock for self-comfort; sometimes for an hour or more. It could get very loud against the rails (which would then hit the wall) and be heard throughout the whole upstairs (it's hard to believe this is a comforting behavior, but it is). Well, just in the last couple of weeks, he has started this again against the head board on his bed. I'm not alarmed by it, but I am disappointed to have it return at night because it wakes other people up (everyone except for his twin brother who is in the bed next to him!).

Obviously, he'll eventually stop. I had hoped it would have been by now, but what can you do? To this day, it is not associated with any other odd or concerning behavior, so I long ago stopped worrying about it. There was even a time when he was doing it so much he had a bald spot on the back of his head from where he rocked against his crib (and this was WITH a cushioned bumper on it that I strategically placed to soften the surface!).

The funny thing is, about a month ago, his baby brother started rocking in his old high chair--the high chair we swore he'd break with all of his rocking. It appears we now have another happy rocker on our hands!

I would not worry about this unless it is accompanied by other concerning or related behaviors. It can never hurt to have her evaluated just for peace of mind (we've also discussed this with his pediatrician), but it does not sound concerning to me.

 

BOST - THANK YOU!!! So glad to know that I'm not in this alone!

I was looking up SPD and Olivia has ZERO addional sypmtoms to the rocking. I think that I will wait it out. She is a very smart, articulate, and active girl. I'm just so glad that I have "met" someone who is going through the same concerns and have been rest assured!

Jen - its great to know that your girls are slowly growing out of this habit.

You know...I had friends when I was a kid (4 sisters all of different ages) and they all rocked. They would lay on their bellies and rock their heads into the pillows, or they would rock from side to side whens tanding or rock back and forth when sitting. They all grew up to be normal people.....hmpf....

 

You're welcome. You're not alone and I am sure there are many, many others in this boat. When I first posted about it I felt very alone, too.

I think one of the hardest things for us parents - mostly Moms - is to monitor something of concern (developmentally/behaviorally) over time. We just want to do something about it or make it go away. Truth is though, with time, 99% of what we worry about turns out to be nothing. This is probably one of those times.

I definitely think we need to evaluate it globally, too, not just on its own. If it was one of a handful of symptoms, then there's reason for concern. But, on its own, especially when a child is otherwise developing/behaving appropriately, it's probably just a fluke. When you think of it, most kids have a quirky behavior or two.

When I mentioned it to my Mom a while back she reminded me that I also rocked. In a different way, but always rocked nonetheless. Heck, I was standing in the dairy section of the grocery store recently trying to make a decision and I found myself rocking side to side.

Anyway, hopefully it is nothing for both of our LOs and will fade away over time.

 

Glad to know there are others here who have had excessive rockers Brandon has rocked for comfort since he was around 10 months old or so. And he always does it when he is in his bed, or occasionally when on the couch (that just started here recently). He's never rocked in his high chair, car seat, etc. He too can rock so loudly that we started calling him Thumper due to the repetitive noise he would make. And its not uncommon for him to kind of "sing" while rocking. It's more of a humming to the rhythm of his rocking. I've went in their room before thinking maybe something was wrong because he would be rocking so loudly. And then I would realize he wasn't even hearing me. It was as if he was "sleep rocking" :lol:

I honestly haven't been worried about it though. He doesn't seem to have any development problems and doesn't obsess about anything. His brother has some speech issues and Brandon is very helpful in telling us what Colin is trying to say when we can't quite understand him. They both went to a pediatric development specialist a couple of times a year until they were 2 (because they were preemies) and she didn't see any signs of sensory processing disorder, so I guess that's why I've never been concerned. I do hope he grows out of it though, because I worry that sometimes it affects his brother's sleep (not to mention he wakes me up thanks to the monitor!)