“My adopted daughter is having a really big response to crawling. How can such a simple activity cause her to feel anxious?”
These feelings are real and strong. Babies are vulnerable and their feelings at this stage of their development reflect life preserving concerns such as:
“Will someone come for me when I cry out?”
“Am I safe?”
“If I hurt, if I am hungry, if I am too hot, if I am too cold, will my mom save me?”
“Is my life valued?”
“Will I survive?”
Of course the thoughts don’t come in those particular ways, but it is the essence of the pons level brain, that is a ‘survival’ brain.
Most babies get what they need, immediate relief from life threatening distress (heat, cold, pain, hunger) because they have loving parents. Most babies are reassured by the call-response cycle, wherein the baby cries to meet a need, the caregiver responds lovingly. Most babies have bodies that are free to crawl away from perceived danger (which is the first purpose of tummy crawling). Most babies have a caregiver nearby and they can track their eyes back and forth to keep track of that person. Most babies feel safe, so these questions, in the form of huge body distress, do not come up.
When a child is going through crawling for brain integration they may visit these feelings again, but in doing so we have the opportunity to help them process them in a safe environment so that their lives will no longer feel so threatened in their day to day living experiences, and our children feel more calm, peaceful and regulated.
If your child is reacting strongly to the tummy crawling activity, please contact your practitioner for strategies in helping them process these strong feelings.