The rise and fall of the plantar response in infancy.
To determine when the plantar response becomes reliably flexor in infants, 169 infants underwent serial evaluation from 2 weeks to 12 months of age during routine well-child visits. The plantar response, elicited in a standardized fashion, was extensor in 95.5%, 64.8%, 10.9%, 0.7%, and 0% of the infants at 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 months, respectively. The plantar response becomes predominately flexor by 6 months of age in normal infants. This maturation of response correlates closely with that of other infantile reflexes.
Gingold
M K
MK
Department of Pediatrics and Neurology, West Virginia University Health Sciences Center, Morgantown 26506, USA.
Jaynes
M E
ME
Bodensteiner
J B
JB
Romano
J T
JT
Hammond
M T
MT
D000367:Age Factors; D005528:Foot / Q000502:physiology*; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D012018:Reflex / Q000502:physiology*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000502:physiology