Self-soothing or sensory-seeking?

[jackson's mama]

First, I should preface this post by admitting something - since my son Jackson has a neurological disease, I've definitely been overly focused on the development of my twin girls (4 months old). I'm trying not to be neurotic about it, but maybe I am anyway . The girls have tested negative for Krabbe Disease, but I still worry that something else could be wrong.

One of my girls (DD2 by 7 minutes) has a habit of touching/rubbing her head or trying to touch her head. She does it all the time when she nurses, when she gets upset, and other times too. I've noticed her putting her hand up by her head and grabbing whatever is there if she can't touch her scalp, like the padding on the side of her carseat. She does it with either hand.

She's lagging a bit behind her sister in overall development, although she rolled over within the past few weeks and is smiling and babbling. She seems a bit less focused than DD1, whereas DD1 is very cued in to social interactions already. I probably wouldn't notice that DD2 is behind if I didn't have another baby to compare her to.

So tell me, does the head touching seem like sensory-seeking, or just normal self-soothing? I twirl with my hair when I'm distracted so maybe it's a hereditary thing, but this little one doesn't have any hair yet to play with yet . The girls have a 4 month well baby visit coming up next week and I'll mention it, but I wanted to hear what the wise mamas here thought. I really have very little objectivity now when it comes to this stuff.

Thanks .

[Jennifer3141]

Both my babies rubbed their heads while nursing and drifting off to sleep. DD is NT and DS is SPD and ASD. I don't think it's anything to worry about - your DD has found a way to self-soothe!

[peekyboo]

My vote is self-soothing. Also, keep in mind that they may be twins, but they are two different children and will do things at a different pace. My brother and sister are twins - sister started walking at 10 months, brother didn't walk until 14 months. Also, sister was a crawling champ, brother just slithered all over the place with an army crawl. They were somewhat late talkers because they'd communicate in their own little twin babble to each other. But they turned out pretty normal overall

[sbgrace]

No reason to worry right now in my opinion. I remember talking to my pediatrician because my son (a twin) was a constant head rubber. He's typically developing. His twin is on the autism spectrum! My autism guy did have stimmy stuff too but I didn't see them that young actually.
I just knew somehow that one of my boys would be spectrum but if you had asked me prior to six or so months I would have said Caleb. It was Andrew.
Looking back I do see very early signs and you do notice those easier with twins for sure. So when you mention less social cues I would say keep an eye on it--but it is way, way too early to get concerned. I'd say keep an eye on any child. Nothing you've said here would make me more concerned at this point.

Instead of comparing with her twin (which I know is impossible actually) just keep an eye on the typical progression milestones. As the months pass look for lifting her arms to be lifted and similar nonverbal milestones, peek a boo and similar baby interaction games, imitation, responding to her name, pointing by a year. If you start to see those things missing in any child (pointing and responding to a name by a year particularly) I'd start some kind of intervention. I've got a feeling your girls are fine.

Most of all--try to just enjoy them!