I want to touch on a new phenomenon happening called COVID babies. Perhaps you have heard of it or have one yourself. These are the babies conceived and or born during this pandemic and the unique challenges they face. What challenges? We as chiropractors are seeing infants, babies and toddlers with more stress in their nervous system than in the last decade or so, and others who are reaching milestones faster than ever before! So you may be thinking… okay, so my child is crawling way before his sister did; that’s a good thing right? 

Sadly the answer is no. Here’s why. 

Our bodies are beautifully and wonderfully made. We have perfect nervous systems that know what hormones to produce and what muscle groups should develop all at the perfect time. We are meant to hit stages of growth and development at the right time and STAY there for as long as needed to fully develop before tackling the next stage. Hitting milestones too early or skipping them entirely is just as bad as meeting them late or not at all. 

Let’s take a newborn born in the last year. I have seen many parents on social media boasting that their barely one month old can hold his or her head up already. The parents are overjoyed at how strong she is. What’s really happening is that there is stress stuck in the upper cervical or upper neck from birth. The irritation of the stress causes the nerves in the neck to emit stress chemicals that tell surrounding muscles to tense and protect. Thus the child is constantly bracing against an unseen stress instead of being strong. This stress can effect the Vagus N, arguably one of the most important in the body. 

How about the baby that crawls for a week then goes straight to walking? Many parents know that crawling builds our lumbar curve. Our babies are meant to have cute pudgy bellies because as they crawl the weight of the abdomen pulls the lumbar a forward and strengthens the postural muscles along the spine. So when babies walk or cruise too soon, these structures don’t form the way they should.  Crawling g is also an essential part of hand eye coordination. A baby that correctly crawls on all fours with their head up and eyes forward will better develop coordination skills than babies who skip this step or choose to scoot on their behind or army crawl.