Cathy Meehan: Today, we’re diving into something almost no one in mainstream pediatrics really fully explains, and that’s reflexes. I’m Cathy Meehan with the Meehan Mission Podcast, and my special guest today is Dr. Laura Hanson. She is a wealth of knowledge, and she’s with ConnectMyBrain.com. So we’re talking about reflexes. So not just like those ones you get at a checkup where they hit your knee and your leg bounces up, but those early automatic movement patterns that literally build the brain. We’re actually gonna do something special. We’re breaking this into a three-part series. And so today we are going to talk about withdrawal reflexes, and then we’ll release part two, which is primitive reflexes and our final third part of the series is postural reflexes. So get ready and take some notes, share the podcast with your friends and people who are needing to know, and let’s get started.
Cathy Meehan: Hey everyone and welcome to today’s episode. Like we talked about, this is part one of our three part series, Reflexes, the Hidden Blueprint of Brain Development. And who better to tell us all about reflexes and what we need to know is Dr. Laura Hanson. Dr. Laura, thank you for joining us today.
Dr. Laura Hanson: It’s always a pleasure. This is probably one of my favorite topics. So I’m happy to share some information with your audience.
Cathy Meehan: That is great. Really, we just really need to start from the very beginning and talking about reflexes. And like I said, you are the best person to give us this information and let’s really start. Why do reflexes matter in the first place?
Dr. Laura Hanson: This is actually the beginning of the wiring of Baby Human. I can remember a long time ago when I first got this concept, and it’ll be about our third part that we get to, postural reflexes. And I said, well, wait a minute. If posture is out there, what comes before that? And then it leads you to, well, what comes before that? And reflexes are literally the earliest connections for baby human. So a lot of talk is out there about sensorimotor. Reflexes precede sensorimotor. In fact, when you’re a baby inside the womb and you’re reflexively moving and moving different body parts, you’re actually setting up what will become the sensorimotor cortex. On top of your brain. So always think of it. I love to talk about reflexes or development from this idea of dominoes. You know, people build those beautiful abstract pieces of dominoes and then it only takes one little push and the whole thing comes down. Imagine what it would be like if one of those dominoes was actually out of place. The
Cathy Meehan: Yeah, a great visual.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Information or the force would stop and then you could push it again but there would always be that piece taken out. So reflexes are that idea that are often overlooked thought that you know they come in they do something they go away and you never need them again but you do. You need them to build the appropriate circuits. They all have different timelines, but even to kind of put some context into it, if something happened to you or me, we would go back into our brainstem and we would begin to relearn movement patterns, reaction to things in the environment.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Because it’s the rudimentary place of all learning. So I remember back around 2004, my mom had a stroke and I was working on her body one day, her left arm, and she had a right-sided stroke. So the left side of the body would have been impacted. And I remember getting in over her hand and literally she went right into a palmar reflex. So remember when babies are just little bitty babies.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Laura Hanson: And you put your finger into their hand, they just reflexively, yes. So you go back into these in various parts of time because it’s a way that the central nervous system actually knows how to learn. So go ahead.
Cathy Meehan: Did the little grip. Mm-hmm.
Cathy Meehan: It’s so amazing. I just want to stop right there because that is so amazing when you think about just how important early, early development is. It’s not after the baby’s born. We are talking such early development in those basic little steps. It’s so important.
Dr. Laura Hanson: No!
Dr. Laura Hanson: Well, Bruce Lipton actually talks about whatever’s going on with mom and dad a few weeks before conception will also shape conception. And he termed the phrase conscious parenting. We’ve got to be aware of what it is that we’re doing before we ever conceive these babies because
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Dr. Laura Hanson: It starts immediately the shaping of their central nervous system.
Cathy Meehan: Which we could go into a whole other segment about prenatal care before you even conceive. So yeah, yeah. But the reflexes part, just the neurodevelopment of the little tiny, little tiny baby. Yes, we’ll continue with that and keep educating us.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yeah.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yeah, that’s a big one too. Absolutely.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Okay, so this is the one, the first part is actually called the withdrawal reflexes. So that’s what we’re going to focus on here in part one. I personally think this is one that many different therapists are really not trained in. Over the years, I will ask parents, well, did you do the withdrawal reflexes? And they go, I don’t know what that is. And then they’ll ask the person that they were working with.
Cathy Meehan: Okay.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Did you do the withdrawal reflexes? And they go, I don’t know what that is. So the very first thing that baby human learns is how to defend itself. Now that sounds kind of, wow, a little baby in a womb defending itself, but it’s, it’s primal. It’s, we have to know how to protect ourselves. Okay. So think about what’s in the womb. This is amniotic fluid. And a baby, that’s it. Now amniotic fluid is going to create ripples, it’s gonna create vibration, it’s gonna cover that baby, but it’s a very light touch world, right? Unfortunately, some therapists out there, they use hard brushes and they connect the withdrawal reflexes to that hard brush because one of the therapies is brushing but it’s all done with very light touch. And light touch is a neurological track. Vibration is a neurological track. Pressure is a neurological track. All of these things are going on simultaneously, building the nervous, central nervous system so that you’re aware innately of your surroundings. And we’re gonna really build on this in our in our little episode here. So baby human, even if its own thumb is coming towards its mouth, it’s going to pull away because it’s perceiving, I’m training right now. I’m learning how to come away from something. Babies can hear in the womb. As I was talking about Dr. Bruce Lipton, he was one that showed me an incredible video on a baby in the womb and the
Dr. Laura Hanson: Mother and father were arguing. And you could actually see the baby startle. Now a startle reflex is primitive. And we’ll go into that in our second one. But if I know how to startle, what would I do with that? That’s why we have to know something comes before that. So if I startle, I have to know that I have to get away. So when a baby is in flexion and it startles,
Cathy Meehan: Okay. Mm-hmm. Yes, yes, yeah.
Dr. Laura Hanson: It extends, it gets away from whatever is startling to them. Does that make sense so far? Okay. So this withdrawal reflex is training us how to be like a detective in our environment to know when we’re safe and when we’re not. One word is survival. Survival. So
Cathy Meehan: Just basic survival. Yes.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Think about, we have a reflex, it builds something in the central nervous system, but then it’s meant to integrate and it’s supposed to become mature, okay? You still use this reflex today. Let’s say you’re cooking and you skim your arm on a hot pot. You don’t sit there and go, wow, my flesh is burning. You pull it away without even thinking about it. That’s a mature…
Cathy Meehan: No.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Withdrawal response. If I step on something, I recoil off of it. That’s a mature withdrawal response. Now, some research even says that we actually wake up in the middle of the night and we will scan our environment to know that we are safe, whether you are aware of it or not. Now, I am aware that I wake up in the night and I do, I look around
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Cathy Meehan: Hmm.
Dr. Laura Hanson: But it’s an innate thing just to know that you’re safe. Now let’s build on this a little bit because the purpose of going through these reflexes is to help people in your audience realize how they can connect the dot to maybe something their child is going through. So the one word I’d like to start with is the word distraction. So there’s lots of kids that… Teachers will say your child is very distracted. The withdrawal reflexes are part of building your peripheral vision. Your vision has two components. You have central vision. That’s like when you go into the eye doctor and he says, okay, what’s the lowest line of print that you can see? Okay, that’s central. Peripheral includes central, but goes all the way behind your ears. Therefore, if you hear something, you will turn and you will look to see if you’re safe. OK, now, literally, this goes all the way around. So it is your oculomotor or the mechanics of how you see and visual acuity is different than oculomotor. Visual acuity is let me put my glasses on for clear vision.
Cathy Meehan: Yes.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Oculomotor is six muscles that wrap around each eyeball. And it’s the movements of the eyes. And your eyes are the only piece of neurology that’s out here, but it influences the entire brain because your visual cortex is all the way back here behind your head. Okay? So kids that are distracted, they’re constantly scanning. Their environment to see, am I safe? And they’ll be very tied in to the special senses, the sound, the smell, the visual, the lights coming in, whatever, a kid dropping a pencil, everything will take their attention because in their central nervous system, that particular set of reflexes
Cathy Meehan: Interesting,
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Didn’t mature up. So it’s still dominating. When the reflexes dominate, it keeps the child stuck down in the brainstem rather than releasing the brainstem and allowing that higher brain function to take over. And yeah, it’s so big and you know,
Cathy Meehan: Okay.
Cathy Meehan: Wow. Wow.
Cathy Meehan: It is.
Dr. Laura Hanson: We take these different labels and we just pull out something. Like dyslexia is one that really, it kind of infuriates me because most of what is controlling people’s view on dyslexia is different organizations that are dominating in medicine. Okay? And so everything about dyslexia is typically tied into the child is having trouble reading and writing. Well, this is the part about reflexes that people have to understand. It is not an automatic guarantee that you’re going to grow up and read and write. Think about what it really takes. So if I have to put a pencil in my hand, but my Palmar reflex is still going, what do you think that’s going to do to my writing?
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Cathy Meehan: Yeah, it’s not going to make it very legible, right?
Dr. Laura Hanson: If my eyes, right? Excuse me. If my oculomotor is just constantly scanning a room to know that I’m safe, how are you going to read? So we have to come back to the basic principles of how we actually get wired up and what is needed. And so
Cathy Meehan: Yeah.
Dr. Laura Hanson: The withdrawal reflex is incredibly important. You have to know how to come away from something. Now it’s also about brain waves. You have two primary functions in your brain, reward and inhibit. Okay, you have lots of brain waves, but you either go towards something or you come away from it. So even in neurofeedback training,
Cathy Meehan: Okay.
Dr. Laura Hanson: We’re either enhancing connection, we’re dampening where there might be too much, but those influences of brain function are also coming from this reflex. And if you do not have the reflex, integrate it correctly, you don’t know how to put the brakes on. You’re just like a running train on the track.
Cathy Meehan: Yeah.
Cathy Meehan: Yeah, and I do want to go back just a tiny bit when you were talking about dyslexia. So really dyslexia is a symptom of something, right? So really you, we’re going to work backwards and find out, was it something to do with reflexes and can we retrain the brain? I guess, is that where you go with some type of a diagnosis or?
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yes.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Exactly.
Cathy Meehan: You recognize a symptom in a child and then you work backwards.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yes, exactly. So just briefly, and we’ll go a little deeper in the second part, but asymmetrical tonic neck reflex is a primitive reflex. So they have categories. So this one that we’re talking about today is the withdrawal. To realize that we’ve been hardwired to know how to come away from something, okay? But then there’s a transition.
Cathy Meehan: Okay.
Dr. Laura Hanson: And boy, we’ll really highlight that one in our next little presentation. It does exactly right. It builds. So then you go through a transition and then you go into the primitive reflexes. One of the primitive reflexes is asymmetrical tonic neck reflex. That’s when the baby is here, turns its head and the arm and leg reflexively go out on that side.
Cathy Meehan: Yeah, that’ll be so exciting how this builds on one another. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Dr. Laura Hanson: And it splits you right down the middle. And that’s when all these neurological columns are being laid down that will eventually, once that reflex integrates, it will communicate with ease and you will have bilateral function. For example, the need to talk is on the right, the work of talk is on the left. So you have to have the right
Cathy Meehan: Okay.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Timing to have a conversation. You have to have the right steps met to get your language centers going. And then you pull together that inhibition of ATNR and you then can have the proper communication. But lots of children that are dyslexic, they’re not organized. And one real quick little way of determining if a child’s brain is organized, the eye, the ear, the hand, and the foot should all be dominant on one side. The child that has an ear over here and an eye here and a hand that’s mixed laterality, that means I did not get organized up there. And so that’s what
Cathy Meehan: Hmm.
Cathy Meehan: Okay, interesting.
Dr. Laura Hanson: That’s what creates the problems with reading and writing. And a true dyslexic child, that’s the reason why reading and writing is so hard. Their brain isn’t organized. And you only have a window to try to really correct that. Because by the time the child gets to be eight and a half years old, they’ve already gone through a lot of adaptation and sometimes forcing those kinds of switches, that too can be a little overwhelming for a nervous system. And then that could literally pull you right back into the withdrawal reflexes. It could literally make you defensive. So think about if I got stuck in the time that I’m supposed to be learning how to defend myself.
Cathy Meehan: Yeah, and for a child that’s
Dr. Laura Hanson: I could get stuck in defensiveness and I could get stuck wimping and whining about everything all the time. So it’s never, you know, some definitive one way over the other. Some children literally, they’re far right and they’re far left. And you have to do an assessment to figure that out. That’s why I think it’s very cautious, you know, when you’re telling people about certain things, well, what can you do for this? I would always tell somebody, please work with somebody that’s trained because I think a lot of stuff gets out in books and papers and webinars and things like that. And then you can get a kid stuck somewhere else.
Cathy Meehan: Yeah. Well, it really is quite a complex system, you know, what we’re talking about. And then going first line defense, the withdrawal reflexes is where it starts in the very, very beginning. And like you use the domino example, I mean, that’s why it’s just so important for, think, you know, healthy living and clean living and positive thoughts. The more that you can create a positive environment, whether it’s thoughts and health and nutrition and all of those things, I would assume the better off you’re going to be when it comes to developing those withdrawal reflexes and moving on.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Absolutely. I really love to tell young couples, we work on this for a couple of years before you actually conceive. Let’s get your body healthy. Let’s educate you along the way. And I think we’ve seen a perfect example of that with everything that happened during COVID. And there were lots of babies born and there were lots of babies made during COVID.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm. Yes.
Dr. Laura Hanson: And that little generation, within six months, research was already being published that these kids were already showing signs of developmental delay. And they’re young, so all these windows are wide open. And it’s just very easy when there’s that level of stress going on. Here’s the other part.
Cathy Meehan: Yeah.
Dr. Laura Hanson: You and I have an extensive library. You can even see part of my library, right? We’ve gone through many things. So when a situation comes up, we have a lot of ways of, okay, I remember something like this, I can do this. A child does not have an extensive library. They’re building their library. So they can’t come to you.
Cathy Meehan: Hmm.
Cathy Meehan: Yeah.
Dr. Laura Hanson: And say, hey, I think one of my dominoes are out of place. They can’t come to you and say, you know, sound is really bothering me. You might get an expression. One comes to mind where I did this assessment a few weeks ago and school age boy. And after I did the report with his mother, she goes, this is why when we’re in the car, he hears certain music.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Laura Hanson: And he’s just like, you gotta stop. I can’t take it. I can’t take it. So the reaction is what the reflex would give you. So these kids, they don’t have the go-forward of a library. They have to go backwards because they’re new to the world. They’re young. They don’t have the experiences to say,
Cathy Meehan: Yeah.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Hey mom, do you think you could just turn that down just a little bit? It’s kind of irritating. They can’t do that.
Cathy Meehan: Yeah. Yeah. They don’t really know what is acceptable, you know, or normal. And yeah, how do they judge what, what? Yeah. Yeah. They think that’s normal. Yeah. Yeah. Right. That’s, that’s, I mean, yeah.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Right. Well, they actually think that is normal. That is their normal. Yes, that’s their normal. Because they know no other way. I can remember when my daughter, we were doing some vision therapy. And when she got to a place where she had made some improvement, she goes, wow, I can see the difference between the water drops on the windshield and the windshield. And I looked at her and I said, I had no idea that you couldn’t.
Cathy Meehan: Right, right. No, I did the same thing when I got contacts as a middle schooler. And I remember walking out of the office, the doctor’s office with my contacts in and I told my mom, I was like, what? There’s leaves on trees? I just thought it was a, you know, a brown stick and this green blob. And I was like, what? There’s leaves on trees. And, but to me it was, it was normal. Like sitting in school,
Dr. Laura Hanson: Wow.
Cathy Meehan: And looking at the chalkboard, that’s really what made me have to go get my eyes examined. And it was because, you know, everything was blurry and it was getting very difficult. And so it was a matter of getting my eyes, but I thought it was normal that everything was blurry. Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Laura Hanson: That’s what it is for every child. Now, just one more little example. I don’t ever want anybody to think that this only happens to kids. So I was working with an adult woman and how she came to me, I’m not sure because she was scared to go out of her house. That is a classic example of being locked in your brainstem.
Cathy Meehan: Mmm.
Dr. Laura Hanson: And the withdrawal reflex being so inundated that it would literally impact your ability to step outside. So she had to get somebody to drive her to the office, but I wanted to do this therapy with her. And she was standing in the foyer. I’ll never do it like this again because what was right behind her was a half a flight of stairs. But you know how you feel? When somebody gets really close to you, you feel them. So as I said, this, and I got very close to her, she literally stumbled back. Thank goodness she didn’t fall down the stairs. But that is a classic response of an adult still living in a state that withdrawal is really their only perception.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Cathy Meehan: Mm. Yeah, that…
Dr. Laura Hanson: So this can happen to a kid. It can happen after a heart attack, a stroke. It can happen. It could have been your whole upbringing.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm. And you’ve just never gone past that. So we talk about the withdrawal reflexes so early and moving on. What am I to do as a pregnant mother to make sure that my baby is developing normally? Is there anything that… I’m supposed to be watching out for or doing just to make sure that my baby is going to be healthy and develop well.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Well, the key thing I would say for that population is I believe all pregnant women should be treated like queens. I think sometimes as pregnant women, we try to do a lot and it’s our culture and really having a very down-regulated system that knows how to relax. I think that is one of the most important things outside of,
Cathy Meehan: Wow.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Planning your pregnancy, making sure your body is well. But talk to your baby, rock your baby while your baby’s in your belly. That’s the vestibular system. If there’s any red flag, make sure you talk to somebody and your audience is always welcome to reach out to me. I’ve had several cases over the last few years where I found out that the babies were never moving in the womb. And we want to get that baby moving because those are neurological connections every time they move. So that’s a very big part of development. And then, of course, you know, a uninterrupted delivery. You know, you got to plan that delivery. That is part of the, you know, coming into the world.
Cathy Meehan: Yeah.
Dr. Laura Hanson: And we’re all born, nobody got to bypass that. So it should be a beautiful event and it should be received and the baby should be taken care of in a very gentle way once that baby gets here. And I love the couples that are able to wait a little while before they cut the cord. The cord is magical, there’s a heartbeat. And it will tell you when I’m ready, when I’m ready to disengage and be on my own from you as a baby. That heartbeat will stop. You know, it’s just, we do everything so fast and we need to slow down. We need to slow down.
Cathy Meehan: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, the word that keeps going through my mind is nurturing. So just really nurture the baby while it’s in the womb. Nurture yourself as a pregnant mother. And then the one thing that we recommend to all new parents, whether you’re having a hospital birth, if that’s your choice, because you’re just now learning that there’s other options besides hospital births,
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yes.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yes. Yes.
Cathy Meehan: We highly recommend seeking out a doula, maybe a home birth or a birthing center. But the number one thing is delayed cord clamping. And that is it. That is of all the list of everything on your birth plan, if you can request delayed cord clamping, that will probably be one of the most beneficial things that you can do for your child. Because a lot of hospitals, they don’t even recognize that.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yes, yes.
Dr. Laura Hanson: No, exactly, because we’re in a hurry. When you go into a hospital, that room is a timed event and you have to realize that, you know? So you have to advocate for yourself.
Cathy Meehan: Yeah. Yeah, they’re in a hurry.
Cathy Meehan: But they’re also not educated in the benefits of delayed cord clamping, you know, which is, you know, that’s a whole nother story on that. But I forgot really, it is a timed procedure. The sooner you get out, the sooner they can bring the next person in. So we gotta watch that. We gotta watch that. So, but yeah, nurture your baby, nurture the mom. I love the idea of slowing down.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yeah.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Mm-hmm.
Cathy Meehan: Which I think that is great advice for absolutely everyone. Everyone. Yes, everyone. I’m even taking that advice myself, which is, yeah. Which it’s been very difficult. Well, as far as like the reflexes and how that develops for the baby’s brain, what other significant information do new parents and moms need to know
Dr. Laura Hanson: Everybody. Absolutely. Absolutely. Me too. Me too. Me too.
Cathy Meehan: About the withdrawal reflexes.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Well, you’re, look at your baby, let’s say your baby’s here now, okay? So if your baby is overreactive, I think colic is a very good example to really understand that’s vagus nerve irritation. Vagus nerve is a cranial nerve, so it’s in your brainstem. And all of us, when we’re born, we are brainstem dominant. We are fully formed, but we are not fully functioning. We are in our brainstem. And lots of times, handling when the baby’s being pulled out, or if it did happen to be a C-section or instrumentation was used, those are even more classic things that can happen to that vagus nerve. But a baby that cannot be consoled. Is a very big sign that my central nervous system, it’s irritated. A baby that is not sleeping in a rhythmic pattern. You get some parents that will say, we’re so lucky. Our newborn is sleeping eight hours a night. That’s a huge red flag. So we can have an over aroused system, like an irritated vagus nerve, and it would look like
Cathy Meehan: Yeah.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Cathy Meehan: Right, yes.
Dr. Laura Hanson: But you can have an under aroused central nervous system where the baby is not waking up rhythmically. Newborn babies should wake up every two and a half to three hours to feed. So we don’t want over sedation or under sedation, right? We want to be able to see the proper steps that that baby is going through.
Dr. Laura Hanson: A baby that cannot lay on their belly comfortable enough, that is probably a lot to do with the back of the head. But again, if I can’t do something that I’m innately designed to do, where am I going? I’m going backwards. I’m going into my brainstem, right? And I will get myself locked back into those earliest reflexes.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm. Okay.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm. Yeah, which is even all the more important reason to get your newborn baby hands-on maybe with a chiropractor or somebody that deals with newborn babies. I mean, we highly recommend for people to take their babies to a chiropractor. Yeah, and there and you can find them specifically, you know.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yes.
Cathy Meehan: People that work with newborn babies. Yeah.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yes, absolutely. We have a lot of extended credentialing in our field. And I know I’ve done every bit of it and will continue to even do more. So that’s what I would tell you is just find somebody that has done extended work. And if you ever need help finding somebody, reach out. I’ll be happy to help you and guide you to different directions where you can find where people with extended credentialing are actually listed.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Cathy Meehan: And
Cathy Meehan: Yeah, that’s great. Yes. And we have resources at Mindset Kids too. And your website is ConnectMyBrain.com. ConnectMyBrain.com. I highly, highly recommend people research and find information with your group too, because you have been such a blessing. And I’m so glad that we got to meet each other and that we get to do these series, because it’s so important to just really help educate.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Good. ConnectMyBrain.com.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Me too, me too. Yeah.
Cathy Meehan: Parents, you we say be the scientist of your own health. Yeah, I really think, you know, we’ve been taught that, we’re so busy. We have so many things to do. We just take our child to the pediatrician. I mean, it’s a propaganda thing. That’s what mainstream medical really wants us to do is, you know, you’ve had the baby. Okay, so then now you have to go and do your, you know, one week checkup and then you get there and then you have to do a six week checkup. And the issue is
Dr. Laura Hanson: Nobody’s telling anybody about this stuff. Yeah.
Cathy Meehan: Not all pediatricians. Are good. That’s all I’m going to say. Yeah, so they’re not as naturally holistically minded as a lot of practitioners, which is why we do recommend going to see a chiropractor with newborn babies. And just, know, the bond that they have is completely different now. That’s my little spiel on pediatricians.
Dr. Laura Hanson: I would agree with that.
Cathy Meehan: If you want more information on that, can go find one of my other podcasts.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Well, the way I always describe it too is what tools does the person you’re going to go see, what tools do they have in their bag? Right? Is it just a stethoscope? Is it just an otoscope? What else can they do besides look at things and then write a prescription? And it’s interesting to me because it was about
Cathy Meehan: Mm, yeah.
Cathy Meehan: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Oh gosh, like 20 years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics, they even said that the majority of ear infections are viral, not bacterial. So if they came out and said that, why are we still giving antibiotics every single time a kid has an ear infection? If we look at the development, of a child, which nobody goes over this with anybody. You have a round head when you’re born. By age one, you have a chin, which means between newborn to one that eustachian tube that’s horizontal goes this way. It goes at an angle. And so kids that had anything that went on during the birth process or in utero, if those plates of the cranium aren’t moving like they’re supposed to, the eustachian tube doesn’t flow. And that’s the classic ear infection. So yes, a chiropractor who works with children, works on the cranium, works on the little neck, and before you know it, everything is flowing exactly the way it’s meant to, without disrupting the gut.
Cathy Meehan: Everything’s fine, yeah. Okay.
Cathy Meehan: And I have to plead guilty because 20 something years ago, I was a pharmaceutical rep and I sold antibiotics for ear infections for kids. And you know what we did? We walked in with a pamphlet said, here doctor, if your patient has this symptom, this symptom, this symptom, prescribe this medication. And that was it. That was it. That was it.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Ha ha!
Dr. Laura Hanson: See, it’s like a book. It’s like a book. That’s it.
Cathy Meehan: It was no critical thinking. Was no, is it viral? Is it bacterial? It was like, do they have these symptoms? Give them this. And sorry, everybody, I do not do that anymore. I seek critical thinking physicians and that’s where, you know, that’s where you need to, which you can fire your pediatrician by the way. Just reminder everyone that if, you know, if you’re hitting resistance,
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yes you can. Yeah.
Cathy Meehan: Or you are wanting alternatives, you know, like natural solutions and things like that, and they are not listening to you as a parent, just remember that you can fire your pediatrician. There we go. Okay. So let’s wrap up withdrawal reflexes and give us your last words on that. It’s important and significant because we do have part two that will be released next. So what are your final words?
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yeah, you can. All right. Okay.
Dr. Laura Hanson: So just to wrap it up, this is our earliest defense system. We must learn how to survive. And it is going to influence the entire central nervous system. And a grown up defense system is what keeps you from burning your arm, stepping on a rock, stepping on a nail, and being comfortable in your environment. And even if something comes up from behind, you look at it casually. And it doesn’t scare you. And most important is you feel safe in the body that you have and the world where you live.
Cathy Meehan: I love it. Dr. Laura Hanson, thank you so much for walking us through this and we will catch you on the next part two of our series. Thank you so much.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Yes. Yes.
Dr. Laura Hanson: Thank you.
