Intolerance to Prone Positioning as a Clinical Marker of Motor Delay in Infants

doi:10.13188/2380-0534.1000021

Abstract

Highlights

The prevalence of gross motor delays in infants appears to have increased over the past two decades and several studies have suggested that a lack of prone positioning of infants when awake is associated with an increased rate of gross motor delays [1,2,3,4]
This study was designed to investigate the role of intolerance to prone positioning in infancy and how that might contribute to motor delays
Children who present with deformational plagiocephaly (DP) have been shown in a longitudinal study of over 200 infants to demonstrate a higher prevalence of motor delay during infancy [9]

Summary

Introduction

The prevalence of gross motor delays in infants appears to have increased over the past two decades and several studies have suggested that a lack of prone positioning of infants when awake is associated with an increased rate of gross motor delays [1,2,3,4]. One study of healthy full term newborns looked at milestone acquisition and found that prone milestones were delayed in supine sleepers but walking was not [2] These studies did not look what barriers there were to the prone position or the infants’ ability to was highly successful in decreasing the rate of SIDS [12,13], but did not initially provide recommendations to attend to prone positioning during wakeful time. This omission was felt to be a contributing factor to the observed increase in motor delays [14]. Our study was designed to explore the association between excessive fussiness in prone and the presence of motor delays

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion