The Landau Reflex is one that develops a few months after birth and remains until about 12 months old. It is useful in helping the child develop posture. If the Landau Reflex does not integrate (go away), it can cause posture, motor, and memory issues later on.

Symptoms of Retained Landau Reflex

• Low Muscle Tone
• Poor Posture
• Poor Motor Development
• Short Term Memory Difficulty.
• Tension in the back of legs, toe walker.
• Lack of Stimulation in the pre frontal cortex causing attention, organization and concentration problems.
• Weak upper body
• Difficulty swimming the breast stroke.
• Struggles to do a summersault. Knees buckle when head tucks under.
• Even if they don’t display any of these symptoms, it is a good idea to do the quick test on them, as there may be other functions that are affected by it that are still unknown.

When holding the infant horizontally in the air, stomach down, the baby’s legs will arch up if the head is up and drop down if the head is lowered. This is normal up to about 1 year. If it persists past one year of age, there are simple exercises to integrate it. There is a good example of this in an infant on this YouTube video.

Retained Landau Reflex Test

Have the child lay flat on the floor, face down with arms straight out in front. Have the child lift their upper body and arms off the ground while keeping the top of their feet on the floor. If they struggle with keeping both feet flat on the floor, the Landau Reflex is most likely still present.

For more information on Primitive Reflexes and how to integrate them, check out our Primitive Reflex Integration Kit