diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES.md b/RELEASE-NOTES.md
index a2e0dc411..89650dec5 100644
--- a/RELEASE-NOTES.md
+++ b/RELEASE-NOTES.md
@@ -192,6 +192,7 @@
 - **Menu** - `tiered menu` has been removed
 - **Menu** - Increased contrast on `inverted` menu selection for legibility
 - **Modal** - Modals now used fixed widths and not percentage widths. Widths might be slightly different.
+- **Modal** - Modal no longer observes DOM changes by default, added setting to enable
 - **Message** - Slightly increases `box-shadow`
 - **Popup** - Popup no longer produces an error when a position cannot be found on the page.
 - **Segment** - **Clearfix** has been removed from `ui segment`
diff --git a/src/definitions/modules/modal.js b/src/definitions/modules/modal.js
index f77db15c2..09bdb1f9f 100644
--- a/src/definitions/modules/modal.js
+++ b/src/definitions/modules/modal.js
@@ -81,7 +81,9 @@ $.fn.modal = function(parameters) {
           module.refreshModals();
 
           module.bind.events();
-          module.observeChanges();
+          if(settings.observeChanges) {
+            module.observeChanges();
+          }
           module.instantiate();
         },
 
@@ -836,6 +838,8 @@ $.fn.modal.settings = {
   verbose        : false,
   performance    : true,
 
+  observeChanges : false,
+
   allowMultiple  : false,
   detachable     : true,
   closable       : true,
@@ -849,6 +853,7 @@ $.fn.modal.settings = {
     useCSS   : true
   },
 
+
   context    : 'body',
 
   queue      : false,