I’ve been furthering my studies with respect to the health of moms and babies and I’ve been reviewing something called primitive reflexes. Primitive reflexes are reflexes that we all have before and after we are born. They exist to help us survive the birthing process mainly and usually diminish and disappear some time after birth.
Sometimes, for various reasons, babies can retain primitive reflexes for too long. The problem with retained primitive reflexes is that they can interfere with proper nervous system development and because of that, normal and healthy development of all body systems.
One of the main primitive reflexes that can sometimes be retained is called the Moro Reflex (aka Startle reflex). It is believed to be present in order to help the baby cling to its mother and to brace the body when falling.
When a Moro Reflex is retained it can show up in a variety of ways such as: difficulty focusing, distractibility, poor impulse control, emotional immaturity/sensitivity, mood swings, anxiety, easily triggered anger, difficulty performing different types of eye movements and the extensive list goes on. This can result in things like a child finding a change in routine very challenging.
The bottom line is that you don’t want your child to have a retained Moro Reflex. There are ways to test whether or not a child has a retained reflex and there are exercises to help the child’s body to resolve the retained reflex.
A retained Moro reflex generally can cause an increased fight/flight reaction in the nervous system. The child is more likely to be on edge. Other than the exercises that can help, accommodations can be made at home or in the classroom to help the child adapt more easily. NeuroSpinal Optimization can also help resolve the reflex since it stimulates proper functioning of the nervous system.
They say that a personality is partly due to a collection of habits of perceiving, thinking and action done over a longer period of time. So I wonder, for people who tend to be more on edge, more easily triggered, and who have an imbalance in their automatic Operating System, is any of it due to starting life with unresolved primitive reflexes?