anni may be on to something!

I have posted this on other boards and thought I should include it here:

anni's taken some heat for being enthusiastic about the book, Stopping ADHD.  Well, I bought the book and have only read a few chapters but I can already see the logic behind it.  The idea is that for an infant, crawling is an important exercise as well as a developmental milestone.  However, the use of things like playpens, walkers, bouncers and swings cuts down on the time a baby spends crawling.  The "back to sleep" campaign has also contributed to it (lay the baby on his/her back to sleep in order to prevent SIDS).  Newborns have a reflex that usually is suppressed by about 6 mos called the Symmetric Tonic Neck Reflex.  This is part of the reason babies have an automatic sucking reflex among other things.  When an infant does not spend enough time crawling before he/she walks, this reflex is not suppressed.  This causes discomfort down the road when a child attempts to sit still, write, participate in atheletics, etc. making it hard to concentrate. 

As I think back, my son did not crawl a whole lot as a baby.  We were in a house that had wood floors that were cold in the winter.  He also had asthma and we didn't really want him down on the floor, for fear that he'd have an asthma attack.  I can see where this deficit might have a role in ds's ADD.   

I've only read 3 chapters, but I'm posting to say that anni may be on to something.  I'm going to finish this book and then give it to my husband to read.  I'm going to try the excercises, too.  I'll keep you posted.

Thanks, anni!