Startle reflex
Also called startle, startling, startled awake, moro reflex, moro
The startle reflex is a newborn's sudden jump when they feel like they're falling or hear something sudden, with the arms flung out and then pulled back in. Doctors call it the Moro reflex, and parents often use the two names for the same thing.
How it's said
My nearly 3 month old still has quite a strong startle reflex.
My baby appears to have a very strong Moro/startle reflex, and it's really interfering with his sleep at night.
Is the Moro reflex the same thing as the startle reflex?
Who says it
Not to be confused with
- Parents use startle reflex and Moro reflex for the same newborn jump. Doctors see the Moro reflex as one startle reflex, the one newborns have, which later gives way to another called the Strauss reflex.
Where it came from
Doctors know the reflex as the Moro reflex, after the pediatrician Ernst Moro, who first described it in 1918. He called it the Umklammerungsreflex, German for embracing reflex.
Cleveland Clinic says babies usually lose it by about 6 months, when it shifts into the Strauss reflex, a startle reflex that stays for life.