Muscle Tone

With each well visit, we make kids do weird things:

• Look at letters from far away to test vision. 

• Listen to beeps and boops to test hearing. 

• Answer questions about their mood, hopes, and dreams. 

Some of the weird things we ask them to do are actually to test their muscle tone. Muscle tone is the overall “tightness” or “limpness” of a person’s muscles. Healthy muscle tone often relates to overall neurologic and muscular health and neuromuscular communication in the brain and body.

When babies come in the office, we test this by picking up kiddos under their armpits and lifting them up Simba-the-Lion-King style. A baby with good muscle tone will sort of hold on, not letting themselves slip through our hands. As kids get older, we test their muscle tone with sitting, pulling up to stand, and exercises like duck walks. 

There is a wide variety of normal muscle tone, especially in babies. Some babies/kids are more “tight” than other kids, and some are more “soft.” As long as their brain signals tell their muscles how much to engage to perform their desired movements, we are usually all good. If for some reason a kiddo’s muscles are too loose or too tight, your pediatrician will often refer them to a neurologist to make sure that brain-to-muscle signals in the body are being handled appropriately.