My three most common questions to parents when they bring their baby in to the office is 1) how are they eating, 2) how are they sleeping, and 3) how are they pooping? How well their body is doing these three basic functions gives me insight into how their nervous system is doing.
We then take a step deeper and ask about milestones: are they tolerating tummy time? Are they rolling? Are they sitting up? Pulling themselves up? Crawling? Walking? It's impressive how much a newborn must do in their first year of life to get themselves upright and walking. It requires brain-body connection, core strength, coordination, proprioception (knowing where their body is in space), balance, and more.
Milestones are called that for a reason - we want to reach a certain point by a certain time. Most developmental milestones have a general window of time to reach, but if a baby still hates tummy time by 3 months, I start to get curious why. If they aren't rolling by 6-7 months, f they aren't crawling by a year, if they aren't walking by 16 months, if they aren't talking by age 2, I wonder why! These are all insights into their brain development. And before you worry about your child, no I don't think anything is emergently wrong, but I do think intervention is best sooner than later.
Chiropractic adjustments free up tension in the nervous system and allow the body to function as it is designed to. Babies that are struggling to meet their milestones will start to move and meet their developmental markers. It's pretty amazing to see how intuitively their bodies will adapt!
I disagree with the statement of a "lazy baby". They're not being lazy, their body is being efficient. It takes more work than it is worth for them to move. At some point they HAVE to move and will but not without some form of compensation occurring in their nervous system. And don't get me started on the AAP removing crawling as a necessary milestones. Crawling is so integral to brain hemisphere development and communication. A proper cross crawl is vital to brain health. That is a whole blog in itself though!
If your child is lagging on reaching developmental milestones, it may take a team to assist them in reaching those points. A pediatric chiropractic, physical therapist, and/or occupational therapist are all great people to have on your child's team!
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