Does tummy time maximize human potential?

Are you open to looking at Tummy time in another way?  I have to” but “I can’t” tug of war can create discomfort. You do have options.  My infant son once disappeared. I found him at the bottom of the steps.  Glad for rubber like bones and reflexes. He attended university, now he thrives. If you forgive yourself, then parenting confidence becomes a habit.

What do parents really want?  If you want a child who connects to themselves and others, then byproducts are your child can navigate the world with ease, form attachments, develop skills, and be an effective learner (1,2). 

Safe advantages. A happy child. Valuable information. Logical education.

This information is for general education and for wellness purposes, does not constitute medical advice.  Consult your healthcare professional for personalized guidance. 

Glossary of terms.  Excitation=gas pedal.  Inhibition=break pedal.  Antagonism=opposite harmonious balance between flexors (decrease joint angle) and extensors (increase joint angle). Agonist=opposite of the pair. Extensors, mostly anti-gravity muscles except jaw.

Interested in personal growth?  When you take your baby for a stroller walk, pretend you are walking slowly in a swimming pool. At work, be the slowest one in a meeting, less reacting quickly.  If you reduce your efforts, then better decision making comes (6).    

How did we arrive at Tummy Time?  Chronology can be a struggle because it’s not real.

Once upon a time in 1947, forensic anthropologist child development expert Wilton Krugman at the University of Pennsylvania Children’s Hospital led a collaborative perinatal project (1959-1874), that established physical growth standards used today.

Krugman stated, “Man has absolutely the most protracted period of infancy, childhood, and juvenility of all form of life.” (1). Dr. Spock’s child development expert said, “pick up your child when they fuss”.  

In the 1940’s and 1950’s the hierarchical/ reflex development model was popular.  The model said that the central nervous system is hard wired, voluntary movement is controlled by higher cortical brain level, and the lower brain centers control more primitive reflexes. 

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) news in 1992. Pediatricians recommended babies sleep on their backs in 1994.  Pediatricians observed in 1994-1998 sleep positioning slowed down milestones .  The new context was Tummy time because babies need stronger necks. New products, infant bouncy seats, toddler walkers, carriers, and flat head issues emerged. Tummy Time was also recommended to prevent flat head issues.

So, we have arrived at the Tummy time policy, being a downstream byproduct addressing the symptoms of SIDS, not the root cause. Tummy Time was scaled up with an inherent bias in data collection. Policymakers simply thinking about the desirability of the goals without without analyzing cause-and-effect interactions.  

Become informed. Make your choices. There are tradeoffs to this policy.

Question the value of my information. Assign probabilities to the events mentioned called heuristics. Marie Curie, 2x Nobel Prize winner once said “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.  Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”

Untrained fears become survival instincts quickly.  Logic needs training, it's slower to learn. Emotions are fast acting, needing awareness, especially fears. I've found that feelings are fragile and egos are soft when I attempt to debate the topic of forced positioning or forced stretching of infants with parents.

There are tribal agreements in the United States?  We unconsciously project society’s values of on to infant development, such as “pain no gain strength” or “we are what we produce hustle culture” or "go to specialists follow the evidence-based science". 

There are so many invisible rules we follow, often unbeknownst to us.

There is much novelty with a new child, new parenthood, and new health providers. Novelty creates hyper-focus in our ancestral brain stem, making us vulnerable to suggestibility. Obedience bias of not to question arises with the combination of authority & hyper focus.  The more you analyze with skepticism, the less suggestive you are.

Medicine is appreciated for saving lives. Everyone is susceptible to cognitive bias, including childcare experts.  Experts confirming their preexisting beliefs have bias with positive association results discounting contradictory evidence or unintended consequences. 

Parents, understanding the distinction between systemic causation, not simple interactions, and intentional causation is one way to analyze Tummy Time. Having vision for the kids, I argue tummy time creates risk for faulty function, sub-maximal human potential, shaping vagal nerve tone from an over concentrated demand on the neck extensor tonic muscles.

The big EDGE or advantage early on of what parents really want occurs during the gravitational adjustment period. Infants learn to use voluntary muscles to maintain an optimal head position while rolling to the belly optimizing the optical righting reflex.

We are all wired to be competitive.  Why not try competing for a week to be the most comfortable parent among your peers, with the most comfortable baby (6).  

Strength is perception.  Basic principles of exercise are simple, strengthen what is weak.  A simple reductionist intention applied to an infant learning gravitational adjustments wondering “what is it?” can lead to mistakes (7). Milestones are society’s permission slip to act doing tummy time. The bandwagon effect bias assigns beliefs based on popularity.

Learn quality head position early on says the PT.  What could be ideal future adult performance for an infant learned in the first few months?  We want better performance in life, less life problems with our child. 

Look at photo album pictures of babies when they first roll on their bellies, or today look at pictures on our phones.

Does the baby fix their head so that the eyes can see the horizon most comfortably? 

Is the face of the baby in a vertical position like they would be standing? (4). The video at the end of this post explains further.

Movement scientist Moshe Feldenkrais worked in Paris with Marie Curie's son-in law Frederic-Joliet-Curie.  In the The Elusive Obvious about his 40 years of work. Feldenkrais talked about the “optimizing the otolithic (inner ear) standardization period” for a baby (4).

When the head is truly vertical, the afferent 8th cranial nerve is optimized, the eyes see the horizon most comfortably (7). The learning transfers to adulthood...

...ears over the heart, heart over pelvis, feeling very comfortable, not rigid.

“it is fascinating as any story on growth and learning to watch how a baby becomes capable of rudimentary and not quite intentional contractions of his flexor muscles to roll over to one of his sides, and then onto his belly, and use the extensor muscles lift his head.”  (4).

Babies are guided by each attempt that feels less awkward, repeating each new action clumsily at their own rate until they have enough of it when intention=execution.

Critical for survival in adulthood is moving fast from a good standing head position. Feldenkrais believed rotation is the advantageous edge for resiliency and is so well developed in humans they turn faster than animals (4,5).

If your infant always holds her/his head to one side, or you wonder about what I described above, you might want to first check with your pediatrician to make sure that everything is okay. Then, perhaps get a couple of lessons from my colleagues.

When we are born, we can’t regulate our nervous system.  Infants need caregiver’s help building a database of history (2).  All infants know are survival reflexes, and are not receptive to low stimuli brake pedal info yet.  The falling reflex is the only fear they know.  The falling reflex is when the infant suddenly lowered, or sharp withdrawal of support (5). 

A cart before the horse fallacy of doing things in the wrong order? ..gravitational adjustment apprenticeship steps are skipped going right to lifting the head while on the belly. 

The infant's sensory analyzer threat detector asks, "what is it?, Is it safe, dangerous, or life threatening?” The brain evaluates signals from the body and environment in a process of triage.  Stay the course, or go into fight or flight, or freeze or hibernation?  Education of Canadian Hans Seyle’s reaction, shock and stress research needs applying (9).  

When giving lessons to an infant I've noticed defensive movement from uncomfortable positions. Sympathetic tone has been put to work under stress, going into survival mode.  Fight or flight, not rest or digest. Let’s mobilize the body the infant's brains says.  Energy sent towards the neck, shoulders, and arms shaping vagal tone.  Good survival strategy for an adult, however the infant's hippocampus memory is busy downloading new software.

Finland and the region have very low SIDS rate according to the 2022 task force. That region award Nobel Prizes. Perception of science, development, and psychology varies among cultures and are prioritized differently. We are actually the SAME in many ways...

Sensory= Afferent conveying signals toward the central nervous system...

Motor= Efferent carry signals away from the central nervous system.  

If you live in the U S., then priority is given to milestone achievement or motor “efferent” systems driving movement and behavior, since movement systems are objectively measurable. Biology only. Cech and Martin suggest many different biophysical, psychology, social cultural, anthropology theories of human development (11).

Forgotten? ...causation... how infant reflexes work...learning...."inhibition"...majority of nerve fibers extending from the brain are afferent & sensory.

Some theories emphasize the body, others emphasize the mind.  1904 Novel Prize winner Ivan Pavlov was the first scientist to say how the body reacts physiologically to certain irritations of the nervous system. Some people set the trend; some follow the trend.

Watson & Skinner in western humanistic psychology talked about small parts of Ivan Pavlov’s work, it's way more than just food rewards and dogs (7,8). Pavlov investigated the body's natural ways of shutting down to overwhelming stress or electric shock. Pavlov described byproducts of stress, learned sequences, or dynamic stereotypes (PTSD).

We are discounting science based on its origin, a genetic fallacy. Movement pioneers Florence Kendall, Karel/Berta Bobath, Signe Brunnstrom, Dr. Vladamir Janda, Moshe Feldenkrais, and others who knew about Pavlov's work with reflexes, learning, and plasticity.

Chiropractors incorporate Pavlov's associate AD Speransky teachings.

There are misconceptions about Pavlov's conditioned reflexes and instincts because of the Slavic word temporary translating into our Latin word conditioning. Instincts are inborn unconditioned reflexes. That is different from acquired conditioned reflexes called habits that can be temporary (7).

Pavlov’s puppies’ research demonstrated passive defensive reflex inhibits the exploratory reflex, evoking escape and fear instincts. Pavlov's found the first time an animal experiences inescapable stress, learned helplessness can make it very susceptible to a quick death, but a single experience of escape creates the perception of possibility, allowing it to mobilize all its resources for survival (7). Project that on humans.

Pavlov was clear in saying that his purpose was eventually to explain how human consciousness works.  Pavlov spoke of an instinct or reflex for exploration, for liberty, for dignity, for procreation, for defense, for food, righting reflex, effect of person reflex. Emphasized is the "what is it? orienting reflex in the reticular activating system. (7).

The falling reflex contracts flexor/abdominal muscles to lift the head avoiding injury, infants hold their breath, fold into a safe fetal position ball.  Evolution gave us the falling reflex to increase chances for survival during earthquakes.  In that falling fetal position, trauma is dispersed through the bones, protects internal organs, if they land on the ground (5). 

Let’s revisit the 1940’s and 1950’s hierarchical/reflex development model.

Anthropologists and Pavlov's views are that brain function specialization evolves from evolution. What keeps us vertical, called anti-gravity mechanisms, are righting reflexes (neck righting, body righting, optical righting), balanced tone (partial tension) distribution, and attitude (posture).

Pavlov’s new brain, cortical brain. "Highest" part of the brain. Center of learning habits, acquiring temporary reflexes, and brain plasticity. Pavlov said, the afferent nerves have "latent reserves". Modulate motor output. The sensory image map forms hologram-like images. Novelty changes habits. No direct access to muscles.

Pavlov said the optical right reflex is under cortical influence.  Unique to humans and higher animals like monkeys. Humans under cortical control can override involuntary righting reflexes. Apprenticeship of voluntary muscles is needed before head is in optimal vertical. 

Pavlov’s old brain, subcortical brain. Unconditional reflexes or instincts. Message conduction to/from cortex. Afferent analyzer system incorporating efferent links feedback loop. The autonomic nervous system or ANS has sympathetic/parasympathetic (veg out) branches, a vagal nerve, and nociceptor threat detection in the brain stem.  The modern discovery of the amygdala does indeed play an important role in threat appraisal (10).

Professionals assessing infant reflexes are using Pavlov's reflex discoveries. Let's understand the reflex arc feedback loop. OK, there is an irritation from outside, very sudden or novel.  Like being placed in an uncomfortable position, or stretched. The first reaction is a reflex arc. 

Is the reflex response to positioning or stretching continued exploration or defensive reflexes?  Learning is an acquisition of a new response.

Belly pressure stimulates exteroceptive or body receptors, then tonic neck reflex induces neck extension. The head is righted by labyrinthine (ear) + exteroceptive righting reflexes.

Pavlov found reflexes are temporary, decay and weaken. If there is a repeated strong irritating stimulus, called induction, then the sensor activation network lights up with excitation. 30-50 repetitions can establish a reflex in couple of days. Eventually there is fatigue. The upper trapezius neck muscles need to dissipate surplus energy. Pavlov said sleep is the generalized inhibitor to prevent complete exhaustion of the nerve cells.  Muscles then need to restore potential energy to have power to contract again. 

What proper response is the question, a thorny and difficult question to answer

I’ve noticed large amounts of energy have been sent to the neck extensors, back, and arms needing to dissipate, stuck energy I’ve had to soften. When there is nothing to get the extensors to relax, it excites mainly the pain receptors and elicits further defensive contraction. 

Tummy time advocates forget about pyramidal tract's “inhibition” function in brain development. The efferent nerve pyramidal tract messages the cortex to skeletal muscle for voluntary movement, begins to form 6 months of life.  Pyramid tract growth extinguishes many survival infant survival reflexes. Infants know excitation and discrimination.

There are postural slow twitch tonic muscles and fast twitch phasic muscles work in balanced pairs. Systematic interactions rather than simple interactions are at work in biology.

The upper trapezius, levator scapulae are postural tonic muscle for anti-gravity, develop high resting tone, and have more slow twitch endurance fibers.  They hold you upright with very sensitive proprioceptors and tend to have problems with over-recruitment.

The deep neck flexors and abdominal muscles are mostly phasic fast twitch muscles, available on demand, good at resting, used for large dynamic recruitment, tend to be fast twitch speed power fibers. Phasic fast twitch muscles have problems with snoozing.

The falling reflex has multiple unfolding stages, position, then sounds. Development professionals are educated about the Moro reflex emphasizing arm activity only.  The falling reflex stimulates the abdominal and neck flexors, inhibits the anti-gravity in the back, and dorsal extensors. I know of many various approaches that offer value to an infant by inhibiting the falling reflex, which never disappears.

With the infant, tone in the neck extensors develops indirectly by voluntary lifting the head on back with flexor activation. In other words, the infant uses systemic causation involving reciprocal interaction. Very complex.

Only in the third month does the baby occasionally begin to arch its body, pressing the head backwards. When an adult lifts their head, the neck flexors contract, inhibit the agonist neck extensors forcing them into a lower state of contraction. When the infant’s flexing is strong enough to raise the body to sitting position, the neck extensors slowly develop tone to not let the head drop forward. 

The upper trapezius stretch reflex needs time to become fully operational. (EGT Liddells and CS Sherrington’s cat discovery in 1924)  The stretch reflex first phase contraction is proportional to elongation, next the second phase the muscle starts contraction.

The steps are slow and in many steps.  Synchrony with breathing sets muscle tone.

The infant creates movement by a game of opposites.  Using balanced muscle pairs involving reciprocal interaction through their agonist, using the stretch reflex. Less is more, less force creates more movement. Oscillatory flow of contraction from one muscle to the opposite pair called antagonism (4). 

The cranial efferent accessory nerve innervates the upper trapezius.  The vagal nerve is efferent/afferent.  The vagal nerve joins the accessory nerve very close by in the medulla!

Information literacy. Normal infant learning gravitational adjustments. The apprenticeship.

1.      Reflex response generally activates the flexor muscles from withdrawal of support or sharp change in position. Flexor tone is dominant the first month.

2.      Loud noises begin to elicit a similar response stimulates the vestibular nerve

3.      Soon the eyes follow light, head turning to assist eyes, look up and down. 2 visual fields overlap and one eye controls the position of the other.

4.      Then raising the head is learned on their back

5.      Followed by hyperextensions.  The interval between raising the head and hyper extension is short and ill defined. The stretch reflex being activated

6.      Sitting up, learning rotation continues by minimizing gravity along the way

7.      Twisting the body. The neck curve develops. Establishment of symmetry.

8.      Crawling. Hip control. The head get raised higher and higher.

9.      Walking. the pyramidal tracts continue to grow and develop

10.  Finally, unsupported standing. Breathing gets the trunk less rigid.

11.  Running and jumping. 

12.    Complete balance on 1 leg, jump, turn around with eyes shut.

13. Learning to ride a bike & inhibit the cortex excitation of the whole chain reaction

During the first 6 months, the child will indulge in rolling on the ground from right to left and vice versa. The rolling first coordinates the EYES, and BALANCES extensor/flexor tone.

BTW the 2022 SIDs task force update says Finland has low rates. Have Tummy time?  Are they using wearable Oura ring technology they developed? Is there a unique prenatal plan for Moms?

When infants are on their backs, you may want to change the way you position them in their crib so in order to see the door or respond to the light coming from windows, they will turn their head to the right when lying in one position. When you reposition them 180 degrees, they will then turn their head the other way.

Appreciate our ancestors and the richness of 19th century Russia brain science.

Pavlov was motivated to study the trending survival of fittest Darwin teachings during anti-bureaucratic times after the Russian revolution. Pavlov was mentored by Ivan Sechenov. Sechenov is known discovering inhibition, and for his 1862 vagal nerve demonstration (7). Vladamir Bekhterev discovered the hippocampus for memory, the first to map out the brain, and published 600 papers on brain function and defensive reflexes. 

Sir Charles Sherrington won a Nobel Prize in 1932 for his work on spinal cord inhibition, synaptic events, animal reflexes.  Germany’s Rudolph Magnus researched animal reflexes.

I like to act when things make sense, make smart decisions. Sarah Baldwin is a voice for the “I have to” but “I can’t” tug of war. Listen to this on your commute (2).

With the SIDs task force I noticed no double-blind gold standard studies for Tummy Time, or safety risks.  (3). What’s the risk of SIDS more or less likely to happen compared to something else?  Brain stem 5 ht serotonin system abnormalities are 70% of SIDS cases compared to 2-2.6x risk for prone positioning.

I have bias sure. I didn’t crawl as a child. Scooted on my but. At age 40 I relearned gravitational adjustments as an adult that I had failed to learn better in my childhood. I have 30,000 hours studying gravitational adjustment details. Look, look, look at the Elizabeth's head position at minute 4. I met Elizabeth, her Mom.

I feel we are better off without a recipe for the general population. Go with what the child prefers. Infants are not supposed to lie on their backs all day long during waking hours. They need to be carried and held—not all the time, but some of the time.

https://www.feldenkraismethod.com/his-life/anat-baniel-moshe-feldenkrais

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4293464/

https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/150/1/e2022057991/188305/Evidence-Base-for-2022-Updated-Recommendations

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9417169/

1 Move Into Life. Anat Baniel.

2 Kids Beyond Limits. Anat Baniel.

3 Sarah Baldwin, You Make Sense podcast. 

4 Elusive Obvious.  Moshe Feldenkrais.

5 Body and Mature Behavior.  Moshe Feldenkrais.

6 Chase Hughes, behavioral expert.

7 Ray Peat.  Mind and Tissue.  Russian Research perspectives on the human brain.

8 Ray Peat Newsletter.  Serotonin:  Energy, Degeneration, and Aging.  July 2019.

9 Ray Peat Newsletter. Shock, inflammation, resistance, epigenetics. May, 2014.

10 Brian E. King, Ph. D. Calming an Overactive Brain. Institute for Brain Potential CEU class.

11 Donna Joy Cech PT Suzanne Martin, PT. Functional Movement development across the life span