REFLEXES

• Palmar grasp reflex


  • Place your fingers into the baby’s hands and press against the palmar surfaces. The baby will flex all fingers to grasp your fingers
  • Birth to 3-4 month
• Plantar grasp reflex


  • Touch the sole at the base of the toes. The toes curl
  • Birth to 6-8 months
• Rooting reflex


  • Stroke the perioral skin at the corners of the mouth. The mouth will open and the baby will turn the head toward the stimulated side and suck.
  • Birth to 3-4 months
• Moro reflex (startle reflex)


  • Hold the baby supine, supporting the head, and legs. Abruptly lower the entire body about 2 feet. The arms abduct and extend, hands open, and legs flex. Baby may cry
  • Birth to 4 monthd
• Asymmetric tonic neck reflex


  • With baby supine, turn head to one side, holding jaw over shoulder. The arms/ legs on side to which head is turned extend while the opposite arm/ leg flex. Repeat on the other side.
  • Birth to 2 months
• Trunk incurvation (Galant’s) reflex


  • Support the baby prone with one hand, and stroke one side of the back 1 cm from midline, from shoulder to buttocks. The supine will curve toward the stimulated side
  • Birth to 2 months
• Landau reflex


  • Suspend the baby prone with one hand. The head will lift up, and the spine will straighten
  • Birth to 6 months
• Parachute reflex


  • Suspend the baby prone and slowly lower the head toward a surface. The arms and legs will extend in a protective fashion
  • 8 months and does not disappear
• Positive support reflex


  • Hold the baby around the trunk and lower until the feet touch a flat surface. The hips, knees, and ankles extend, the baby stands up, partially bearing weight, sags after 20-30 seconds
  • Birth or 2 months until 6 months
• Placing and stepping reflexes


  • Hold baby upright as in positive support reflex. Have one sole touch the tabletop. The hip and knee of that foot will step forward. Alternate stepping will occur
  • Birth (best after 4 days). Variable age to disappear
• Blink Reflex


  serves the same purpose as it does in an adult-to protect the eye from any object coming near it by rapid eyelid closure. It may be elicited by shining a strong light such as a flashlight into an eye. A sudden movement toward the eye sometimes can elicit the blink reflex, but this is not as reliable.
• Rooting Reflex


  • If a newborn's cheek is brushed or stroked near the corner of the mouth, the infant will turn the head in that direction.
  • This reflex serves to help a newborn find food; when a breast brushes the newborn's cheek, the reflex causes the baby to turn toward the breast.
  • The reflex disappears at about the sixth week of life, not coincidentally at the same time a newborn's eyes focus steadily so that a food source can be seen.
• Sucking Reflex


  • When a newborn's lips are touched, the baby makes a sucking motion. Like the rooting reflex, this reflex also helps a newborn find food. It disappears immediately if it is never stimulated such as in a newborn with a tracheoesophageal fistula who cannot take in oral fluids. It can be maintained in such an infant by offering the child a nonnutritive sucking object such as a pacifier.
  • Birth to 6 months
• Swallowing Reflex


  Food that reaches the posterior portion of the tongue is automatically swallowed. Gag, cough, and sneeze refiexes also are present in newborns to maintain a clear airway.
• Extrusion Reflex


  • a newborn extrudes any substance that is placed on the ante rior portion of the tongue.
  • If newborns are offered solid food before this reflex fades at 4 months, it will look as if they are rejecting the food.
• Step (Walk)-in-Place Reflex


  • Newborns who are held in a vertical position with their feet touching a hard surface will take a few quick, alternating steps
  • Birth to 3 months
• Babinski Reflex


  • When the sole of a newborn's foot is stroked in an inverted "J" curve from the heel upward, a newborn fans the toes (positive Babinski sign).
  • This is in contrast to the adult, who hexes the toes if the foot is stroked this way. The reflex remains positive (toes fan) until at least 3 months of age, when it is supplanted by the downturning response.
• Magnet Reflex


  If pressure is applied to the soles of the feet of a newborn lying in a supine position, they push back against the pressure. This and the two following reflexes are tests of spinal cord integrity.
• Crossed Extension Reflex


  When a newborn is lying supine, if one leg is extended and the sole of that foot is irritated by being rubbed with a sharp object, such as a thumbnail, the infant raises the other leg and extends it as if trying to push away the hand irritating the first leg.