The rooting reflex is one of the earliest reflexes babies use to feed. When you gently stroke a newborn’s cheek, they turn toward the touch and open their mouth. This is normal in infancy and helps them find the breast or bottle. As the brain matures, this reflex should fade so higher motor and speech systems can take over. When the rooting reflex stays active beyond infancy, it can create challenges because the head and mouth are still being pulled into that early feeding pattern. This limits h

Primitive reflexes live in the brainstem. As the brain matures, the cerebellum and frontal lobes team up to regulate that brainstem and switch those reflexes off, making room for complex, coordinated movement 🧠⚙️ When the cerebellum or frontal cortex are underdeveloped, the brain can’t inhibit those patterns, so the reflexes linger and get in the way of smooth motor control, attention, and learning. Think rooting and palmar grasp. As babies, these automatic patterns help us survive and build ea