Signs of Low Vagal Tone in Children & Babies

If you have been looking into polyvagal work or nervous system healing, chances are you've come across the term "vagal tone".

What this means, is that the vagus nerve - the major part of our parasympathetic, resting, digesting, calming nervous system- is strong and toned and therefore able to run the show most of the time.

Strong vagal tone is what we want to go for. Good vagal tone means that we can feel activated or a little stressed, but not get fully absorbed into it. If we do get overwhelmed, strong vagal tone will help us to ground back down quickly afterwards.

Children can have low vagal tone as a result of pregnancy stress, childhood stress, or even by being co-regulated with an adult who is anxious or overwhelmed - very common in today's parenting landscape where a lot of us are parenting without a supportive village.

The good news is that we can change it! Have a read of the following list. If you feel like your child checks a few boxes, you can start to heal this by addressing your nervous system first.

Signs of Low Vagal Tone in Children

Feeding issues like:
- Breastfeeding struggles, gagging, choking, or coughing with milk and food,
- Struggled to co-ordinate sucking / swallowing / breathing
- Vomits a lot
- Low interest in solid foods and struggles with textures.

Sleeping struggles like
- Frequent night wake ups, only sleeping with contact or plenty of reassurance.

Digestive Complaints like
- Gas, bloating, gas, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, random sore tummies
- Reflux and silent reflux as a baby
- Food intolerances / allergies without any particular trigger.

Sensitivity challenges like
- Startles easily by sudden loud noises or bright lights, “wired”, emotionally sensitive, quick to blow, low tolerance to upset and then once upset will take a while to calm again.

Confidence struggles like
- Not wanting to try new things, resistant to change, very shy, strong attachment to one caregiver, doesn’t like people in their personal space, will shut down if people get too loud or close, take a long time to warm up and worse if forced to be polite.

Immune challenges like
- Catching every bug, taking a while to fully heal and often back to back sickness.

Development challenges like:
- Plenty of trips and falls, clumsy, delay in motor milestones, poor co-ordination (especially in things like swimming).

If you see a theme here and have tried everything under the sun with nothing sticking long-term, your child may have low vagal tone. We can improve vagal tone with simple and consistent vagal work, that starts with you.

Vagal tone is a pretty good indicator of overall health. We “tone” the vagus nerve with our polyvagal tools, rhythm, ritual and PLAY.