#AHS13

I’m stoked to be presenting at the Ancestral Health Symposium this August in Hotlanta Georgia!

This is my abstract, in case you’re interested: Paleo Parenting: A Biomechanical Perspective

Children come with a myriad of developmental reflexes that are often suppressed through modern parenting practices. Parents wishing for a culture-free perspective on topics such as breastfeeding, shoe-wearing, infant exercise and baby-devices will find benefit in a biomechanical breakdown of how the behaviors of present-day hunter-gatherer children differ from industrialized ones.

Parents wishing to support the biological (reflexive) programs for human development and growth can be aided by understanding the relationship between applied forces (pressure, gravity, tension) and physical outcomes -- bone shape, muscular strength, and milestones. Data shows that loads to bone and muscle vary greatly between modern hunter-gathering infants and babies raised in modern, non-nomadic situations.

Evaluating practices of hunter-gathering childhoods and comparing them to modern parenting practices biomechanically, offers a culture-free perspective to support parents and practitioners in decisions such as: children, shod or not, how long to breastfeed, type and frequency of baby devices, play vs. physical training.

This presentation will go beyond the chemical contribution of nutrition and into the mechanical forces necessary to utilize a good diet. Topics to be covered include the biomechanics of breastfeeding vs. bottle, jaw and soft-palate formation, baby carrying vs. baby wearing, infant exercise, footwear and gait development, and the physics of bone shaping during childhood.

Upon completion of the presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Compare the potential of vertical loading created by their preferred baby-wearing device to the vertical loading of an infant carried in-arms.

2. Determine the frequency and characteristics of footwear use necessary to optimize intrinsic foot muscles necessary for optimal balance and gait and integrate this information into a modern household/environment.

3. Differentiate between the muscular forces used during breast and bottle feeding and how these relate to orthodontia outcomes.

And all in twenty minutes.

If you’ve never been to an ancestral health event, the conference is one of those mind-blowing, earth-shattering experiences that come with the removal of a cultural veil -- a big old sheer-net thing your entire mind, body and life is swaddled in, that you didn’t even know was there. You’ll spend the rest of your life discovering that, just when you thought you have found the end of it, OOPS, there’s another little bit. It’s like a huge knot of Christmas lights that way.

If you can make it to the event, great. If not, friend them on Facebook as they’ll be releasing the videos made of the event eventually. And if you want to start now, you can check out the first two of a three-part “reflex-driven childhood” interview series I’ve done with BreakingMuscle.com.

1. Katy Bowman and the Biomechanics of Human Growth: Barefoot Babies.

2. Katy Bowman and the Biomechanics of Human Growth: The Necessity of Monkey Business 

The reason I am so passionate about natural movement in (very) early childhood is because this is where many patterns are set that dictate many later-in-life health outcomes. Actually, my preference would be for us all to consider return to more natural movement before getting pregnant -- making this an actual healthcare goal --  as it is the maternal environment's structure that determines the developing skeleton's ranges of motion and position limitations in the uterus.

But, alas, I am only one woman and can write only one book at a time. The first is one for adults, wanting to uncover their own personal reflex-driven body. Look for the kid book to come after that. And the pregnancy book to come after that.

Who's going to volunteer to clean my house and take showers for me?

The end.