Why Do Babies Do the Newborn Scrunch?
Morehouse Healthcare pediatrician Nicola Chin, MD, explains why newborns tend to curl their bodies inward.
Dr. Nicola Chin
Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Morehouse School of Medicine
By Katie McPherson, Romper
The first time you hear about the newborn scrunch, you may not know exactly what the phrase refers to. But once you see it, you’ll remember it in your very bones: When you scoop up a newborn, they tend to bunch up their little legs and curl their arms inward, and often lay on Mom or Dad’s chest froggy style too. So, why do babies do the newborn scrunch? This adorable little movement is just a remnant from their time in the womb and is something they’ll grow out of eventually.
While it’s not clear exactly when the term “newborn scrunch” came about, it’s definitely taking hold — the hashtag #newbornscrunch has more than 700 million views on TikTok alone. (Its many misspellings and typos have hundreds of thousands of views too.) Watch one video and you’ll see why. Parents are capturing their baby’s scrunches to share with the world — lifting them out of the car seat, and we all get to sigh at how cute their bunched-up arms and legs look. The scrunch also happens when babies are resting on their bellies during tummy time or on a parent’s chest. For parents of older kids, these videos are wistful reminders of those very first days with their own babies, all cozy, scrunchy, and perfect.
Why do babies do the newborn scrunch?
Basically, they’ve been balled up in the womb their whole lives so far. So, the newborn scrunch feels comfy and familiar, and they just have to figure out they have room to stretch now, experts say.
“This scrunch [is a] physiological movement that imitates what has been happening starting in the womb, where you are kind of scrunched in that uterus, and exiting out into the real world,” says Dr. Nicola Chin, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at Morehouse School of Medicine and who’s also a practicing pediatrician at Morehouse Healthcare and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. “Babies are acclimating to the real world now. They’ve been released from this warm fetal position, and they are saying, ‘Hmm, what am I supposed to do?’”
“It’s very common for newborns to have that instinctual feeling of going into a position of comfort, a position that protects them in some ways from the outside world, which can be very stimulating, especially in those very first weeks of life and the new noises and those things. So, it lets them pull into themselves and feel safe and protected, especially when being picked up by caretakers,” explains Dr. Jenna Wheeler, MD, pediatrician at Orlando Health and Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital.
How long do babies do the newborn scrunch?
So, how long will they have this adorable habit? Not long enough for the parents who love it. “Around the 6-week point they seem to be a little bit more comfortable in their environment, they’re more comfortable being held and with the noises around them, and they start to stretch their arms and legs out a little bit more,” says Wheeler.
“Newborn ‘scrunch’ movements can last up to one to two months maximum,” says Chin. “They scrunch and curl, imitating that warm fetal position, but this resolves within that time frame, after which most babies start elongating and extending their extremities and torso.”
If your little one is 6 months of age and still spends a lot of time scrunched up, Chin recommends bringing it up with your pediatrician. Together, you can dig a little deeper and make sure your baby doesn’t have an orthopedic or neurologic concern going on that’s restricting their movement.
So, take lots of pictures and videos of your baby’s newborn scrunch. It’s one of those squishy, adorable, fleeting little newborn habits you’ll want to relive when it has been outgrown.