Recent evidence indicates that infants are spending upward of 60 waking hours a week in such things as highchairs, carriers, car seats and the like. That means little to no opportunity for babies to strengthen their muscles – to lift and turn their heads, to push up on their arms, to develop optimal balance, stability and motor skills. It means little to no opportunity for the cross-lateral (right arm/left leg, left arm/right leg) experience gained from crawling and creeping. And because cross-lateral movement activates both hemispheres of the brain and stimulates communication across the corpus callosum (the matter connecting the two hemispheres), being confined affects much more than motor development; it impacts brain development and can later result in problems with reading and writing.

All of these areas of development are simple matters when Mother Nature is allowed to handle them as intended – through the baby's natural desire to move. But when this desire is thwarted, such "simple matters" as upper torso strength, rotation of the head, visual tracking, motor development and so forth become much more difficult to achieve, often eventually requiring intervention from such professionals as physical and occupational therapists.

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