Pediatric Chiropractic and Reflex Integration

Speaker 1 0:02

Hello everybody and welcome to the Beauty of Breathing podcast . I have one of my friends with us here today , dr Caleb Scroggins . Hello , hello .

Speaker 2 0:13

Hey there , thanks for having me on , I appreciate it .

Speaker 1 0:16

I'm so excited to have you here . I heard you speak in a conference that we did , an Aerie Circle conference we did in Savannah , and my mind was blown . So I knew immediately I want to . I wanted to have you in all of my channels . So , if you don't mind introducing yourself to everybody who you are , what you do , what your specialty is and where do you practice .

Speaker 2 0:41

Yeah , so I'm in Savannah , georgia , caleb Scroggins . I'm actually a chiropractor who has a board certification in pediatrics , and my focus in practice and in life is helping babies as young as one day old really have their best life expression . So that can come in many forms , but really it's a lot about tone . It's a lot about neurodevelopment . I've done a lot of my studies in the area of neurodevelopment , and that includes breathing , it includes crawling all of the milestones . The reflexes are what's really hot right now . Everybody wants to know about the reflexes , and and I'm here to say that the reflexes are a key component , but they're not the only component , and I think that , just like with all of the things that you work with , if we focus too much on one thing , then sometimes we miss the big picture , and so I really want to talk about reflexes and how they integrate with development , but also the other things that really it synergizes with .

Speaker 1 2:06

I have a question .

Speaker 2 2:07

Yeah .

Speaker 1 2:08

First of all , I know that everybody listening is going . Well , not every chiropractor knows this much , so how do I know if I am going to someone who has this extra training ? Is there a directory or are there some questions that I should ask my chiropractor ?

Speaker 2 2:29

So there is a directory . The International Chiropractic Pediatric Association is the largest pediatric chiropractor training organization in the world and they have different levels of certifications that you can get um . So they start out and and it's very broad for them . So just because you're a member and you're on the the directory doesn't mean that you focus specifically in this area , but they'll have designations um . So it's icpa , ic , the number four , kidscom , and that's the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association , and on their directory they have all their members , and so their members are people who like to take care of children Right , but liking to take care of children doesn't always mean that you're the best in the area .

Speaker 2 3:22

So their names are on there . And then their first level of certification is the Webster certification . So if anybody's ever worked with pregnancy , that type of thing , that is the very initial certification that you get . And so if you're pregnant and you're going to a chiropractor , you need somebody who's Webster certified . You need somebody who's Webster certified . The next level of tier is like their perinatal certification , and then they goes into the pediatric board certification , which is the one I have .

Speaker 2 3:57

There is one level after mine that I'm actually in the middle of achieving , so I'm working towards that and that's the diplom of achieving . So I'm working towards that and that's the the the diplomate specialist . Uh , and there's not that many of those in in the country , but I will be on my way to there . I've already started the coursework . But , um , if they have , so they have Webster , and then they'll have what's called a CACCP and that's certified by the Academy Council on Chiropractic Pediatrics and so if they have that CACCP after their name , that means that they have had some training in this neurodevelopment . There's always more to learn and for me , since my area is I want to be the best at is neurodevelopment , I've done lots of other trainings as well , not even not just through that organization , but others as well . So that I don't know , and they have that CACCP after their name , that means that they know how to do the reflexes .

Speaker 2 5:04

They know how to adjust that . If we're talking about children population Another one is called the Carrick Institute they don't focus in children as much . But if we're talking about airways and we're talking about reflexes , because there's two groups of people you have people who should have these reflexes and don't , and people who do have these reflexes and shouldn't mm-hmm . But most of the time it's the adults that have the reflexes that shouldn't . Then the Carrick Institute that's really where their module is they do a lot more neurology , brain injury , that type of thing .

Speaker 2 5:46

And on the other side of that , in the pediatrics , is usually where they don't have the proper reflexes and should , depending on the age .

Speaker 1 5:56

Thank you . So how different is an adjustment on an infant compared to what we usually see in an adult ?

Speaker 2 6:08

on an infant compared to all we usually see in an adult . Well , there's , I would say , that starting out . The question is the adjustments that we usually see in an adult . The ones that we usually see are usually the ones that are on YouTube , and I would say 95% of the chiropractors don't even adjust that way . Wow , most of the chiropractors don't like the guys on YouTube . You know , trying the ASMR , clicking , popping , cracking , thinking on people's heads . 95% of the chiropractors aren't even doing it that way for adults . Uh , they don't like that , they do that and they especially don't like that . That's how they're advertising . Um , but then translate that even further into children . If you have someone who focuses in children , the adjustment is . One thing that people like to say is the amount of pressure that you would put on your closed eyeball .

Speaker 2 7:02

Wow , Um , that's , that's all that's needed . It's not that you choose to do it that way , it's that's the way that gets the best results , and so it's not even about oh , I can do it this way or I can do it the other way that the hard way doesn't exist for for infants .

Speaker 1 7:22

So yesterday I was getting the kids ready for bed and Zoe sat on the floor and she said mommy , can you please check my reflexes ? So how are some ways for parents at home right now that they can check their kids reflexes to see if they need to go see a chiropractor ?

Speaker 2 7:43

So the big thing about reflexes is it integrates into neurodevelopment . And neurodevelopment is just like when you turn your computer on in the morning or whenever you're starting , it has this loading bar . There's certain things that need to happen in a certain order , okay , and in a certain way , and so when it comes into analyzing reflexes , it really depends on what stage of development they're in . So an infant , from birth to three months , has a certain set of reflexes that should be a certain way , and then three to five months that should be a different way , and then five to nine months a different way , then nine months to a year . So in that little timeframe I'm not going to go into because it's it's very dependent .

Speaker 2 8:30

And I actually one time , several years ago , I was going to make the . Nobody had a poster . I just wanted a poster of how the reflexes really um , drive the milestones and development , rolling and crawling and talking and all that stuff . And so I looked . I was like I'm going to be correct on this , I'm going to have all the research backing it , have this whole thing . So I got a couple of different textbooks and they all said different things .

Speaker 1 9:06

Welcome to the medical field .

Speaker 2 9:09

And so these textbooks , hardback , teaching in different schools they had different ranges , and so for me , what that told me and it solidified it in practice as I saw these things is it's not about much in development , it's not that at three months I want to see this . It's okay At three months have they done these things yet relative to this milestone ? And so that's where the reflexes come in . And so it took a long way to answer your question . But within a year the first year , I think the evaluation really needs to be done as a whole . So if they have these certain reflexes and they are crawling , or they have these certain reflexes and they are not crawling , if they have , or if they're sitting , if you're sitting up , you should be crawling already , because horizontal motion comes before vertical motion and so the reflex is really integrated . There it gets . It gets really complex . But after a year there's definitely some concrete things that I would like to that I can share with parents .

Speaker 2 10:27

So after a year old , most of the infant or primitive reflexes what they call them you can call them infant reflexes , you can call them primitive reflexes should be what they call integrated and I'll go into what that means in just a minute , integrated , and I'll go into what that means in just a minute , but actually I think this is really important first , before we start giving people tests to do Perfect Because we need to understand what we're doing . It's because I have people come in all the time with kids that are toe walking and they're like , oh , I have these toe , I have this toe walker . That means that this is wrong . And .

Speaker 2 11:02

I'm like whoa that doesn't necessarily mean that and I have somebody about to walk in the door . Yes , go ahead . You're fine , two seconds .

Speaker 1 11:13

Yes , you're fine , yes , you're good , I'll keep you guys entertained . So we're talking about reflex integration . I know that Benny had about four reflexes that were not integrated since he was born , and I know that we have to look at everything . It's not only airway , it's not only myofunctional , it's not only a tongue tie what else could be affecting this child's behavior development ? So that's why I invited Caleb to come chat with us and help us understand this a little bit better .

Speaker 2 11:48

Yeah , so . So the first thing we have to understand is where I said a second ago was tone , and when you're talking about airway , you're talking about breathing . There's a certain level of muscle tone that needs to be there , right , vegas nerve is super important . Level of muscle tone that needs to be there , right , the vagus nerve is super important . Okay , well , the vagus nerve is also in charge of a lot of the infant reflexes , and I would even go beyond to say that the vagus nerve is really just the conduit . It's really the brainstem .

Speaker 2 12:18

The brainstem is the most important part of the body . That's what governs all of the primitive reflexes . Okay , um , that's a good segue into what I was already going to

Brain Development Through Reflex Integration

Speaker 2 12:28

say . So I'm going to break the brain down into two , two components the brainstem and let's call it the frontal lobe . There's lots more in there , but brainstem , frontal lobe , the brainstem is all about our baseline functions , so our breathing , our heart rate , our digestive tract function , our blood pressure , our primitive reflexes , how quickly we sweat when we get hot , like all of those things , those baseline things . So those are mostly reflexes . They're mostly baseline things . So those are mostly reflexes . Okay , they're mostly baseline tone . And so when you're born , you have all of these preloaded reflexes to help you adapt to the environment . Some of these infant reflexes are to help with birth process .

Speaker 2 13:18

Some of them are to help them not hit their head if they fall over . Some are meant to , uh , help them not hit their head if they fall over .

Speaker 2 13:28

Some are meant to uh there's a lot of other things that we could go into , but they're all reflexes and those reflexes are all ingrained in this brainstem . Okay , so I can really test and see how functional your brain development is by testing these reflexes and seeing how , like , what level of brain development you're in by what those reflexes do . And so if you have a 10 year old that has , you know , a positive asymmetric tonic neck reflex , you know a positive asymmetric tonic neck reflex , okay , when they turn their head their body turns . You're going to have problems with reading .

Speaker 2 14:14

probably your lateralization isn't quite there . If you have , you know , an unintegrated moro reflex that all babies should have , but they integrate and we'll go back into what integration is . That's the person who maybe has anxiety . Everything's making them jumpy because it's not integrated properly .

Speaker 1 14:36

I don't think I have that integrated properly .

Speaker 2 14:40

Everybody's seen the videos on YouTube or TikTok or whatever people are on now , where you know they're scaring their boss or they're scaring their significant other and they step around the corner and the person throws the tray in the sky . That's an unintegrated moral reflex that needs to get dealt with because it's affecting other areas of their life . And so what integration is ? Well , let me talk about the second half of the bridge . So we have the brainstem . The brainstem comes downloaded with all of these reflexes . Okay , but we're a new baby .

Speaker 2 15:16

We don't know how to do things , we don't know how to crawl , we don't know how to talk , we don't know how to grab onto things . We don't know any things , but we have a reflex for a lot of it . So we have a reflex Whenever I touch a baby's hand , it tries to grab . It's not saying to itself oh , I want to grab that finger , it's just grabbing . And then , as you do that reflex , over and over and over and over , it builds the brain synapses in the frontal lobe that teach them how to grab . They go from not being able to do something to being able to do something , and that reflex is the bridge that helps them do it . And so we talk about latching , breastfeeding , bottle feeding , whatever . If they don't have a reflex , it's going to be really hard to feed them . And we talked before about how all of the steps that are in place for feeding , how that affects airway , dental or dentition , your palate , your all that stuff . Well , what if they didn't have a rooting reflex ?

Speaker 2 16:31

and that's why they didn't breastfeed , because they sat there and you have a a nipple right here and they're just not doing anything , and so now they have airway issues because they didn't have a rooting reflex . Or vice versa .

Speaker 1 16:50

I mean all of the things that you mentioned that the brainstem is responsible for . I feel like on an airway kid , a tongue tie kid , all of those are heightened you know , the breathing is incorrect . I mean everything that you mentioned . Very interesting that breathing is incorrect .

Speaker 2 17:05

I mean everything that you mentioned very interesting , yeah , and it's . It's about baseline tone . So we talk about that integration . I went into it .

Speaker 2 17:17

So because and I like to say this because people say , oh , it integrated . Well , what does that mean ? The integration is literally going from a reflex to something that they can voluntarily do , and there's two different areas of the brain , that's the brainstem and the frontal lobe . And people know that the frontal lobe is your executive function , your math , your reading , your talking , your all that stuff . And so if we literally aren't kickstarting it at the beginning by allowing these reflexes to integrate , then you're gonna have a hard time doing some of these complex tasks , because the brain , the frontal lobe , isn't firing on all cylinders yet . The brain stem is still in control of a lot . So we start out , we're , we have these reflexes , we , we have to do the reflexes , just the tangent swaddling .

Speaker 1 18:13

Oh , I was going to ask you about swaddling . What do you think ?

Speaker 2 18:17

Swaddling inhibits the integration of the moral reflex .

Speaker 1 18:20

Yes . Can everybody , please share this right now . Oh my goodness . Yes . Thank you for saying that .

Speaker 2 18:34

And and you know , we're parents , so there's decisions we make

Understanding Primitive Reflex Integration

Speaker 2 18:36

every minute . Okay , so if your baby hasn't slept in , you know , three days and the only way they sleep is to get swaddled , go for it . But we also need to dive a little deeper and to see okay , why is that more of reflex waking them up so much ? Why is this ? Why are these other things happening ? It's not just swaddle and go about your day , it's okay . Let's get them to sleep now , because they haven't slept in a while . Let's regroup , let's figure out why this reflex is startling them so much . Because what happens is , if you let them do the moral reflex , maybe it wakes them up a couple of times , but as they do it more , you'll notice that the baby will do it .

Speaker 2 19:13

Their eyes won't even open slowly they'll go back to sleep and , and that is the pathway of integration until , yeah , until , you don't need that reflex anymore . Um , and it actually transfer into other reflexes called postural reflexes . We'll talk about that on a different day , but in that first year we have all of these milestones that we have to meet . Um , like I said a second ago , belly crawling in my world comes before sitting up . Okay , we need to have those left , right and twisting core coordination in order to have the strength and the postural tone to sit upright . Okay .

Speaker 2 20:01

So a lot of people they'll be worried about crawling . They're not crawling yet , but they're also not sitting up yet , so , okay . So let's not , it's not too late , let's not worry about it . They don't need to be crawling at exactly six months if they're also not sitting up yet . Okay , let's look and check and see if everything's intact . If everything's intact , then we're okay . But if it's eight months and they are sitting up on their own and they're still not crawling , then okay , so we're sitting up . That comes after crawling , and so we're skipping something . There's something that's not happening that's supposed to , and reflexes can really tell more about that . And reflexes can really tell more about that . The last primitive reflex to integrate . It's usually about a year . When it integrates is nine months to a year is they call Babinski sign and Babinski is when . So it's called the plantar reflex . Okay .

Speaker 2 21:02

And then so the plantar reflex before a year . Their toes should . Let me do it this way this is the bottom of their foot . Their foot should come up and their toes should come up . Okay , and so what that is there for is a protective mechanism from standing . People want to always have their kids standing at six months for some reason , um , and that's not good for their body . They're not there yet , and um . So there's a reflex that literally keeps their foot from putting weight on the ground .

Speaker 1 21:37

Describe exactly what you did under the foot . So those people who are listening and not watching what others understand .

Speaker 2 21:44

So , um , the part of the foot . If you look at the bottom of the foot , there's a part of the foot that's supposed to touch the ground , so it's thicker skin , not the sole of the foot . That part of the foot is sensitive . We don't want to do the test on that part of the foot , the part of the foot that's supposed to touch the ground , the heel , the blade of the foot and the ball of the foot . That is where the test goes and what you do is basically you run your thumbnail blade of the foot and the ball of the foot . That is where the test goes , and what you do is you run your thumbnail . If you're in a clinical setting , you might use a reflex . I used to use my thumbnail up from the heel around the blade of their foot and over towards their big toe , heel , the foot , over towards the big toe , and most of the time you'll see the reflex before you get to the big toe . You'll go up the blade of the foot really , and so the foot will dorsiflex and the toes should come up . That is telling you brain is saying I don't want to put weight on my feet , I'm not ready yet . My brain's not yet to walk , perfect , okay .

Speaker 2 22:50

Now , if there are six months or below , yeah , you shouldn't be walking . If they're nine months or below , yeah , they shouldn't be walking yet . And I actually had a patient come in that was I think I told you this at the conference they were maybe 18 months old A pediatrician sent them to my office because they weren't walking and we couldn't really figure out . They couldn't really figure out why he wanted to make sure it wasn't like a before he sent him for MRI or anything to to see , hey , is there something wrong with this kid's hip ? Um , so we checked him out and the only well , we found a few other things , but we found that he had a retained babinski sign that should be gone by a year nine months to a year . And , if you think about it , when do kids typically start walking ?

Speaker 1 23:39

nine around that time .

Speaker 2 23:41

Yes , right , and so when that reflex goes away , what it looks like is it goes from toes going up . The foot still comes up instead of the toes going up . Sorry , this camera's backwards and so I'm having the toes coming up , the toes will go down .

Speaker 2 24:00

If you're an adult and you do it on you , you should still have a reflex , but your toes should point down . And so if your adult is nine months to a year , it could be either and that's totally normal old is nine months to a year , it could be either , and that's totally normal . Okay , if they're after a year , the toes should point down . And even you know 14 months , toes can still go up . It's still remember . It's not a hard set uh timeline , because the different textbooks say different things um and uh , you have to .

Speaker 2 24:30

It's relative to the other tests that you're doing and what's going

Developmental Milestones and Primitive Reflexes

Speaker 2 24:34

on . So back to this 18 month old . He had a babinski sign . 18 months definitely should have this reflex integrated . Um , so what we did ? That we found he had tension on his brainstem , our factor . We adjusted his upper neck , put his head back on straight and then we retested the reflex and it was gone . Okay , and not all cases are immediate like that . There's a lot of homework that we give people to help integrate uh retained and ots uh typically are . If find somebody an OT that knows primitive reflexes , they're typically pretty good at integrating it . The I got a video an hour later from this mom and the kid was walking now . Wow .

Speaker 2 25:26

So it wasn't a yeah , it wasn't like he couldn't , it was that he had this reflex that was telling his brain he's like no , don't do it , Don't do it , Don't do it . And we removed that reflex , or removed that tension on the brainstem which allowed him to have the proper reflex . And then he was like , okay , I'm good to go , I'm walking now . Oh my gosh .

Speaker 1 25:52

So we talked about swaddling , how that can prevent a reflex integration . What are some other things that we may be doing at home and we're you know we don't realize that that could be impacting our child's development and preventing this reflexes from being integrated ?

Speaker 2 26:06

Perfect question and I'm going to go back to that exact same patient . Because why was that kid's Babinski-Stein still active at 18 months ? Number one reason and we know this because it corrected was that tension on the nervous system . That's why the pediatric chiropractors exist . That's what we're here to do to make sure that baseline . We don't have , you know , extra static phrase in the line , the phrase in the wires make sure that everything is , doesn't have any obstructions .

Speaker 1 26:44

That's no no obstructions .

Speaker 2 26:46

Then if we still have primitive reflexes and shouldn't , excuse me , what could we be doing that keeps them from integrating ? So , swaddling for Moro reflex Okay , for Babinski sign . We've had kids in with Babinski sign that shouldn't , and their atlas was clear . Okay , we cleared them , and they still had them . Shoes , socks .

Speaker 1 27:19

I was going to ask you Shoes how old should we start putting shoes in our kids .

Speaker 2 27:26

Shoes man , Especially the hard sold ones . It's really hard when you're putting them in daycare and stuff like that . It requires hard sold shoes . They're not good for them , they're not we . We talk to parents all the time that we're trying to give them homework to do at home and I'm like , hey , these hard sold shoes that they're in they're not helping and they're like , well , they're required , so I don't . I don't have an answer for that . The daycare's rules .

Speaker 1 27:54

But at home , if we can choose no shoes or a certain type of shoes until a certain age .

Speaker 2 28:00

No shoes is best and there's a specific reason for that . Over even the leather shoes is the leather shoes are great , they're awesome , but they only give one stimuli you only feel leather . And so they're not walking on your hardwood floor , where they feel the grain in the floor and the dirt that's on the floor and the carpet and the grass and all these little tickles and all of those little sensations . They activate different parts of the brain and they use different nerves . A different nerve sends pain signals than a nerve that sends motion signals or that sends comfort signals or deep pressure signals .

Speaker 2 28:46

They're different nerve fibers and so we have to use all of the nerve fibers to really help the brain grow and integrate those things . And so we have to use all of the nerve fibers to really help the brain grow and integrate those things . And so , even with the leather shoes , which are infinitely better than hard sole shoes , they're still getting one sensation all the time . So no shoes is best . Then I would probably go socks or the leather shoes , and then they have those you know , kids , barefoot shoes . Those are probably be third , and then the hard sold shoes would be last Very good .

Speaker 2 29:20

And then on the other side of that , so removing the desensitization . So now that they're barefoot or walking in the leather shoes , now we need to be tickling their feet . We need to , we need to have them walking and or crawling on all the different surfaces and we need to be actually stimulating their feet . I used to we give the kids a bath every night and I would take a hairbrush and I would play a game where I was chasing their feet the hairbrush it's a true chiropractor .

Speaker 1 29:51

Oh my gosh .

Speaker 2 29:52

Their bath time was sensory integration . I love it and they thought it was hilarious . They'd try to go to one side of the bathtub . I'd go over there . They'd go to the other side of the bathtub . But you can do it , you know , just chasing them on the floor . Another thing is crawling . Crawling is a huge that that there's probably 15 , 20 reflexes . That crawling is the is the therapeutic . Wow .

Speaker 1 30:22

So all of these kids that that crawl for a little tiny bit , or crawl like both of my kids , only crawled with one knee and then they started walking , or those children who barely crawl and then start walking , that is a problem yes .

Speaker 2 30:37

So crawling is huge and um there's I'm not going to list off all the reflexes , but you know just a few . I think that are that are pretty good for , pretty easy for parents to do . We can talk about it again Once they understand the reasons . Is a spinal gallant reflex is there , it helps in the birth process , it helps in rolling over , it helps in learning to crawl . But there's a saying in primitive reflexes is the test , is the treatment for a lot of things . And so what you do to test , so like on that plantar reflex that we were testing to see the Babinski sign , if they do have that and their brainstem is clear , the homework is literally tickling their feet . It's doing the thing all the time and , just like with that moro , the more they do it , the more it trains that frontal lobe and stimulates their brain to grow .

Speaker 1 31:46

I remember when they found out that Benny had the , the moral reflex that was not integrated yet , they did tell me that I uh to play a game with him where I would throw him on the bed . Yeah , that was fun for him , stimulate it .

Speaker 2 31:59

You want to stimulate it , and then , with kids , you have to do everything you know as a game . So , um , I'll tell you know , moms and dads to just , you know , with their baby , maybe not a little baby , but maybe like a yeah , as well as baby was the toddler y'all he was like three , I think , two or three um you turn them around .

Speaker 2 32:21

Let them feel gravity in different ways , you know . Keep them safe . But um have them upside down baby time . All the kids love upside down baby time . All the kids love upside down baby time . I love it . It's hilarious and that helps use those reflexes , because they have to use them in order for them to integrate .

Speaker 1 32:40

You know I can't help myself but think of how our society is nowadays , with parents working so much with children in their ipads , so much because , back in the day , I'm sure that you know the interaction of of parents or even uncles and aunts , and and you know other family members that were always around kids playing like that because they didn't have another option . You know , I , whenever we first moved in this house that I am now , we didn't have a tv because benny broke the tv . So , yeah you , they were finding so many more things to get into that nowadays I feel like , are those things getting worse ? Do you see way more of that ? Because kids are not interacting ?

Speaker 2 33:26

Well , and there's . So they are . They're getting worse as a whole , I would say , looking at your individual child , that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to be worse off , but as a whole , kids are not crawling as much , they are having more learning issues , reading issues , and those things are part of these primitive reflexes being integrated . If , if you can't control your eye movement side to side , how hard is that going to be to read ? Wow , and I'll tell you , a concrete evidence of this getting worse is I don't remember what year it was , because I didn't , I didn't listen the CDC , uh , I remember that .

Speaker 2 34:15

Yeah , the CDC came out with all these , all new guidelines for developmental milestones and me and my other chiropractor friends and my physical therapy , pediatric physical therapist friends and OTs , we were all like , ah , we're just going to throw this away . Um , because that's not real life . Um , because basically , what they did was and there's a couple of ways to look at it I've heard the the responses as to why they did it , but , um , basically what they did was raise the minimum age , that that these kids should be hitting these milestones .

Speaker 1 34:57

Um , why so parents don't feel bad ?

Speaker 2 35:01

well , I think a lot of it has to do with insurance reimbursement , um , and then I think that , in general , a lot of kids weren't meeting these milestones like they were supposed to , and so you get , you know , six out of 10 kids that needs therapy because they're not meeting the milestones , and these insurance companies are paying out a ton for this stuff . Why don't we just raise the minimum and then we'll only focus on the really bad ones , and there's a lot more that goes into that hate mail .

Speaker 1 35:38

That makes sense .

Speaker 2 35:40

There's usually a money motivator for most governmental oversight things , but so I'd like to tie it back in

Importance of Early Childhood Development

Speaker 2 35:52

. So we're talking about the milestones , I'm sorry . We're talking about the reflexes . Those reflexes stimulate movement . Movement is the main driver of brain development .

Speaker 1 36:07

That's an amazing phrase right there . We're going to quote that one .

Speaker 2 36:11

Yeah , and , and so if they , and that's all movement , Okay . And so , starting out with primitive reflexes , that those stimulate the brain development . That's what the integration is . It's turning on the frontal lobe . You don't need a frontal lobe when you're born . Hmm .

Speaker 2 36:31

Okay , because you're not having conversations , you just stimuli react . Those , those reactions grow the frontal lobe , um , and that's that's why these reflexes are important , because , sure , you know , your kid crawled for one month . Okay , they , but they walk , they're getting pumped , they're fine , you know , but their brain missed out on a window of development because they didn't crawl for six months . I usually give people about five months . So somebody comes in to me and they say you know , they're 14 months old and they're not walking yet . That's the problem , okay . Okay , well , when did they start crawling ? Well , they started crawling two months ago . Okay , well , we're not worried about walking then , about walking that , I don't care that they're not walking at 12 months if they didn't start crawling until 12 months .

Speaker 2 37:35

I want them walking at 15 months then , because they need to crawl for five months oh I love that and because that brain has to grow where everybody's in this race or development , we need to slow down and make sure all the steps happen in place , and that's why the reflexes and the developmental milestones and all of that are important . We can slow down on the other ones . They don't need to do algebra yet , they just need to have the good foundation . Um , you know , just like the basketball coaches , fundamentals , yeah , fundamentals , and it'll all be okay . So how do you feel about ? You know , just like the basketball coaches fundamentals , yeah , fundamentals , and it'll all be okay .

Speaker 2 38:31

So how do you feel about those walkers ? Or the developmental milestones and the reflexes that drive them ? But we'll start with the bouncers , because I believe that's earlier . So the bouncers remember that , that babinski sign , that that primitive reflex that keeps your foot from touching the ground so they don't bear too much weight on your spine before it's strong enough to do that . It bypasses it . You bypass that reflex . That reflex is telling you I'm not ready to be upright on my hips and spine . And so we're like , okay , we'll just take the feet out of the equation and just have them on their butt before they're ready to sit up , and then , and then , on top of that , let's back some up and down to where it's like uh every time I talk to you , I want to have another child , so I can do everything right .

Speaker 2 39:36

Well , you know , when it comes to parenting , there's a decision you make every day . So , when it comes to the types of shoes , or you know you really need to take a shower , it's been , you know , five days since you've taken a shower . Okay , they can go in the bouncer , you know , it's okay . But the way I run my clinical practice is mainly through education .

Speaker 2 40:00

I do the adjustments . I teach them homework , but it's all about education . So they need to know that bouncers are not good overall . But if you need to put them in a bouncer for a little bit , okay . If you need to swaddle them , you know , the one night because we haven't slept in three days , okay , that's okay . But we also need to understand that there's a lot of sentiment out there that I , when I talk to professionals , I talk to parents that everything's just okay , it's all okay . You know , it's okay . You know we let them , we let them cry it out to sleep . It's okay , they're not going to die , okay .

Speaker 1 40:46

Not every night , though , everybody .

Speaker 2 40:49

Now I'm getting hate mail , but there are other things in this brain development world that it's not just they're okay . It's okay if they wear a chain . It's okay if they only crawl for a month . It's okay if we swaddle them . They're fine , they're alive .

Speaker 2 41:13

They're good , but I just educate them . They let them know you know what you can swaddle . I don't criticize anybody for anything , but you know , I just educate them . They let them know you know what you can swaddle . I'm not going to , I don't criticize anybody for anything , but I do want them to know that it's not just okay that there are you know better ways to do this and there is research to back this up . And if you want to do the best , and let me stop there . Nobody's ever going to be the best .

Speaker 1 41:42

Exactly Perfect every day .

Speaker 2 41:44

Nobody's ever going to be there . So I have done so many things that I look back and I'm like , whoa , okay , maybe shouldn't have done that , but now you know , and so yeah just , it's all about educating and not , you know , feeling bad things you did , it's just okay .

Speaker 1 42:09

Well , now we'll just have another child and then or or .

Speaker 2 42:15

You know , here's what you do . What you can do is have pillow fort weekend .

Speaker 1 42:20

I love that yes .

Speaker 2 42:22

Your babies didn't crawl for very long . So guess what we need to do ? We need to do pillow forts to where we're crawling all weekend .

Speaker 1 42:29

Oh , that's such a good idea .

Speaker 2 42:30

Dinner on the floor under the blanket . That's over , so they have to stay on the ground like they were crawling . For you know , in a day might be a little long , but integrating more of those crawling type activities into daily life and they catch up on these things . Our bodies are very adaptive .

Speaker 1 42:54

Yes , we have a question about what I asked , what I mentioned about Benny or Benny and Zoe , about single leg crawling . Is there an issue with the reflex integration ?

Speaker 2 43:06

That depends on the person . So there could be a reflex integration issue . For the one legged crawling , I would say that seven out of 10 kids that have one leg crawling . It's more of a uh um pelvis alignment issue .

Speaker 1 43:24

Interesting . I said that cause Zoe was breached .

Speaker 2 43:28

Yep , so so I would , uh , number one , clear the brainstem , okay , to make sure that the neurological tone is balanced in the pelvis . Okay , then I would check the pelvis a lot of times . It's not the leg that they're dragging , it's usually the leg that come with . The knee comes up , okay , that ilium is usually rocked a little . Uh , posterior , um , and again , our , our bodies are not all in these separate places , they're all connected to each other . So if one hip is back , that means the other hip is forward , relative , and so I would check their neck , make sure their brain is clear , so their tone balance is there . And then I would check the mechanics of the hips to make sure that the pelvis is not torqued at all . And we have pretty good results with that .

Speaker 1 44:24

Now I'm thinking , you know all of these kids who have the brainstem that's compressed . Is that causing the airway issues ? Or are airway issues causing the brainstem to be compressed , or are airway ?

Speaker 2 44:38

issues causing the brainstem to be compressed . So the brainstem is within the skull and upper two vertebrae the bottom of the skull , the occiput , and C1 , c2 , the first two cervical vertebrae are actually attached with ligaments to the brainstem . Attached with ligaments to the brainstem . And so , if you think about , the first experience in life for them outside the womb is birth , and their neck is very weak and fragile and that's usually where the first misalignment happens . It doesn't always happen , but birth is stressful . So I think that all kids should be checked at birth by a company .

Speaker 1 45:27

How incredible would that be to have a pediatric chiropractor right there as soon as the baby is born , to go ahead and do the adjustments needed , because these babies have been , you know .

Speaker 2 45:39

And it's not even the womb . They're developed in the womb , but you know . But they and they're also designed for birth .

Speaker 1 45:46

But you know , it's still traumatizing .

Speaker 2 45:49

You know it's a lot , it's a lot of pressure , yeah , and things can definitely misalign that way . That way , I think some studies show as high as like 85% of infants have what they call kinematic imbalance due to suboccipital strain . That was , some medical doctors basically looked at range of motion in the neck after birth and tightness , torticollis , reflux , all these other things that are associated with that , and so I think they said it was as high as 85% . So that means everybody needs to get checked . Right .

Speaker 2 46:27

Remember , back at the beginning we talked about what does the brainstem control ? It controls your lungs .

Speaker 2 46:32

It controls your airway tone . Your vagus nerve is the conduit for the brainstem . So we're talking about your soft palate , we're talking about your eustachian tubes , you're talking about your throat tone . You're swallowing all those muscles in there . That's all vagus nerve and a few others , but they all work together in a network , and so I would say , coming from my viewpoint , that everybody needs to get checked for brainstem interference first just like with the infant reflexes , check there first , then , if there's still something , we do , the next thing and one reason is just ease .

Speaker 2 47:19

I can give a parent you know homework to reflex or to integrate their reflexes where they got to do 30 minutes of homework every day , but it might just integrate on its own without any tension on their brainstem . Wow .

Speaker 1 47:35

Oh my gosh , Caleb . Seriously , we can stay here all day talking about this .

Speaker 2 47:39

You fascinate me every time you start speaking Last words before we go , the driving force of brain development , then reflexes are automatic movement from the brainstem . Those reflexes from the brainstem drive movement which drives the growth of the frontal lobe . The frontal lobe is our executive function .

Speaker 2 48:15

And so , in order to have proper executive function , and so in order to have proper executive function , we have to integrate all of our reflexes because if our reflexes are not integrated , that means there's a part of our brain or of our frontal lobe that's not firing um . And one way that and I think is a very important way to make sure that our reflexes are integrated is making sure we don't have any physical stress on our brainstem and that affects all of the tone in our airway and cranial alignment and tongue and throat and all of that .

Speaker 1 48:58

Wow . That goes to show you one more time how important collaboration is whenever we're treating patients . Everybody you know , based on their training , based on their experience , can see something else . So we all need to work together . Thank you so , so much for taking the time to spend all of this time with us today . I know that people have so many questions . They are so thankful for all of your answers . I definitely want to have you back , because I have all of these other brewing questions in my mind .

Speaker 2 49:33

Everything integrates with everything . Man , there's so much when we talk about different you know developmental points that developmental neurobiology is awesome .

Speaker 1 49:44

I love it Well . Last question how can people find you ?

Speaker 2 49:49

So I practiced in Savannah Georgia and so I'm at restoration chiropractic . I run that and we focus on uh , I call it babies and pregnant ladies , ladies . So we want to . We want to make sure that babies have the best births possible um restoration chiropractic , best birth possible so they have the easiest time outside of birth , um and through that developmental period , um and then um what's your id ?

Speaker 2 50:19

uh , the icpa4kidscom . And for if you're not in savannah or if you , you know , just shoot me an email , the restoration cairo , savannah at gmail . Perfect , and I can send you to somebody . Really good , I sent somebody to north car Carolina this week and Boston this week .

Speaker 1 50:39

Wow , oh my goodness . Yes , definitely , you guys all know each other in this field . Thank you so much . We hope you have a great day , everybody . We'll see you guys next week . Thank you , thank you . All right , bye-bye .