Are Retained Reflexes Interfering with Feeding Development?

Primitive reflexes are hard wired movements that give baby a strong start in development, helping them eat, move, and meet milestones. In the early months of life baby can activate these reflexes simply by playing in a space that allows them to move their body freely. Through reflexes baby begins to learn about how their body moves in space, build strength, control, coordination, and even visual skills. Reflexes are designed to fade out as baby grows and make way for more sophisticated development and learning. When baby has difficulty moving their body though, reflexes may not fully activate and integrate. This can lead to compensations and present as a roadblock to further developmental milestones, whether that's crawling, eating table foods, speech, posture, reading, hand writing, etc. What sort of things can interfere with reflexes integration?

• Birth trauma. A stressful birth or birth where baby incurred injuries. This can include prolonged labor, use of forceps or vacuum, large baby, breech or otherwise abnormal in utero positioning, prematurity

• Body tension. This can be the result of birth trauma, tethered oral tissues, cord around the neck, torticollis, stress to the nervous system, etc

• Lack of opportunity to move freely during the early months. This might due to a prolonged hospitalization, extensive swaddling, a baby who doesn't like to be put down, so is often held by a caregiver, dislikes tummy time, or spends a lot of time in baby seats- swings, bouncers, carseat, etc.

When reflexes in the body don't integrate, some of the symptoms may be:

• Poor emotional regulation, shy, fearful

• Motion sickness

• Dislikes close contact

• Toe walking, sensitive feed, tightly curled toes

• Difficulty sitting still

• Bedwetting

• Challenges with clothing

• Difficulty potty training, GI issues

• Hates teeth brushing, hair brush, laying back for washing hair or diaper changes

• Puts everything in the mouth, excessive mouth movement while working with hands

• Poor balance, posture, limited play positions

When reflexes in the body don't integrate, there is an increased likelihood that oral reflexes are also impacted. In those early months, feeding reflexes help baby root around to find the breast, suck, and swallow. As those fade out, baby starts to use other oral reflexes for biting and moving their tongue side to side for managing table foods. But if the breastfeeding reflexes don't integrate, it can interfere with the "next level" of oral development. Retained reflexes can impact feeding in different ways, such as:

• Open mouth posture

• Excessive drool

• Difficulty moving food to the side of the mouth for chewing

• Sucking foods

• Food falling out of the mouth

• Messy eating

• Difficulty self-feeding

• Texture avoidance, soft diet

• Preference for grazing

• Difficulty staying at the table

How Can Parents Support Healthy Reflex Integration?

Ensure baby has plenty of opportunities to move and play from early infancy. This will include floor time on their back, belly, and sides, as well as baby wearing. Offer toys that motivate them to move. For example, following high contrast cards from side to side with their eyes and head, looking in mirrors, reaching for teething toys, toys that require two hands, like soft balls. Watch to see that they have good symmetry through the body (no curves), and balanced use of both sides of their body (eg, rolls both directions, uses both hands, turns their head fully in each direction). If you have concerns for baby not tolerating floor time, showing a side preference, disinterest in mouthing toys by 4-5 months, or anything else that seems "off", speak with your pediatrician about a therapy referral. I love to take the "when in doubt, rule it out" approach.

Nourish Therapy is located in Poulsbo, Washington. We specialize in holistic feeding therapy, taking a whole body approach to feeding from early infancy. Why the whole body? Because, as you can see, it's all connected. If you have concerns and want to self-refer for feeding therapy, go ahead and schedule a free phone consultation. Let's make a plan to get feeding back on track.