When to start jumper for baby
Should a baby use a jolly jumper? A Chiropractic Perspective
hey guys dr. Ryan here again a patient
asked me yesterday whether or not she
should be putting her baby in a Jolly
Jumper she had heard that it's bad for
them and one of the things you have to
take into consideration is the age of
the child because the answer is
different in those circumstances so if
you think about it a baby spends nine
months in utero floating around inside
the mother once born their motor system
has to learn to interact with the
outside world including things like
gravity you know gravity is a force that
comes straight down and it's never
changing something that never goes away
what a Jolly Jumper does is it takes a
baby who typically is in a horizontal
position because they can't stand yet
and puts them into a vertical position
so that gravity is now coming down on
their body in this direction and one of
the things we want to be able to talk
about is is that creating damage well
the first thing you have to look at and
understand is how that spine develops so
when a baby's first born the spine is
basically in AC position like this but
that's not how it ends up as normal
spine a spine from the front should be
straight up and down okay these would be
the pelvic bones the hip joints come out
from here the skull sits on top from the
front from the front it's straight up
and down but from the side a normal
spine ends up having these very
important curves so there's a curve in
the neck a curve in the low curve in the
mid-back and a curve in the low back the
curve in the neck that neck curve
develops as the baby has some tummy time
and help and and gets all of the muscle
training and proprioceptive training to
hold their head into that upright
position the curve in the lower back
that doesn't develop until a baby starts
to learn to crawl and then is able to
sit on their own without supports a lot
of times moms or dads are using a Jolly
Jumper before that happens and when that
happens that's where the damage can
occur so you have to think about it
think of a child's struggle to stand up
or to crawl or to sit upright they don't
yet have the muscles the ligaments or
even a spinal shape to be able to be
able to do that
these activities all load the bones the
connective tissues especially when done
in non supportive environments so the
more of their own body weight the child
has to support the stronger they'll
become supportive devices are just that
their support and they decrease the
stimulus on the bones the muscles and
the nerves that the child needs in order
to be able to develop correctly it's
just like if you went to the gym and you
wanted to benchpress 200 pounds and you
had two friends on either side lift it
for you even though you were in that
position going through the range you
don't get any benefit from it because
your body doesn't have to build or use
its own muscles to do it it's the same
with putting a child into that vertical
position beforehand
now moving around struggling to sit up
and generally navigating their
environment not only promotes muscle
bone and growth but also helps a baby
develop their proprioceptive abilities
so proprioception is your child's
ability to perceive their body and space
their gravity and so their body's
ability to naturally maintain an upright
posture especially nowadays and we have
so many people sitting at computers
lunch Tovar looking at the iPods or or
their phones etc you know we want to
create an environment where the
proprioceptive strength is is as strong
as possible well why is that important
the spine itself is what protects the
delicate spinal cord and the nerves on
the inside so if you think the brain
sits up here spinal nerves run through
this spinal canal and those go to all
the different parts of the body it
controls all function all healing and
all development so all function is
controlled by the nerve system so your
you know your your heart is beating your
lungs are breathing you're digesting
food and making brand-new toenails and
kidney cells out of the food that you
ate yesterday it's pretty amazing really
and then you have all healing occurs
from control by control of the nerve so
with the nerve isn't going to be think
about if you cut the nerve to a tooth
that tooth dies it can no longer heal
from the stresses of life and so it dies
anytime there's pressure on a nerve
whatever's on the other end of the nerve
can't heal as efficiently and then of
course all development you know a baby
grows and develops more in the first
year of life then they will over the
next ten years of their life so that
first year of life it's absolutely
critical to protect that spinal cord and
in that and those spinal bones the other
thing is the baby's ability to crawl
them and lift their head while on their
tummy are important for neuromuscular
development you know that crawling
promotes a cross body patterning which
will help with their gait pattern it
helps them with their balance it helps
them with their spatial orientation
it'll definitely help them with being
with their sports with their athleticism
but even just overall their general
positional aptitude I like to call it
you know lying on their tummy and
looking around is a ways one way that
the child spinal curves actually develop
the crawling and that cross crawl reflex
is a way that the spinal curves develops
so the moral of the story well I know
that it's convenient I have four kids
myself
I know it's convenient the Jolly Jumper
it's just not a good thing until the
baby has total development of these
curves which doesn't happen until after
they're able to crawl to sit and pull
themselves to a standing position before
that time a Jolly Jumper should never be
used for more than you know eight to ten
minutes at a time not the two to three
hours which is sometimes typical I hope
you found this helpful if you have any
questions send me an email love to hear
from you thank you
