The Experience Miracles Podcast

Q&A When Your Child Plateaus or Regresses… Don’t Panic

Jun 13, 2025

Why Your Child’s Healing Has Stalled: 5 Causes of Neurological Plateaus and Regressions

Episode 112, Experience Miracles Podcast | Host: Dr. Tony Ebel, DC, CACCP, Pediatric Chiropractor & Founder of PX Docs | Published: June 13, 2025 | Duration: 26 min

Key Takeaways

  • Healing plateaus and regressions are a normal, expected part of neurological recovery, not signs of failure. Research on neuroplasticity confirms that children’s brains progress in spurts followed by consolidation phases, meaning non-linear healing is how lasting change actually works.
  • Growth spurts and developmental milestones are the most common cause of healing plateaus in pediatric care. The body’s neurophysiological resources for healing and for physical development come from the same source, so a growth surge temporarily diverts energy away from healing.
  • Immune challenges and fever distract the nervous system’s resources toward fighting infection, often causing a temporary plateau or regression in sensory, behavioral, or neurological progress, including an increased seizure risk in children with epilepsy.
  • Toxin overload, from food preservatives, pesticides, household cleaners, and environmental chemicals, can create a tug-of-war against healing progress even when all other interventions are in place.
  • Too many interventions at once (therapies, supplements, detoxes, medications) can overwhelm an already dysregulated nervous system and keep it stuck. INSiGHT Scans used in Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care can identify when a plateau is linked to intervention overload, prompting a conversation about “picking up the plow.”

Why Does My Child Keep Hitting Healing Plateaus?

Healing plateaus and regressions are one of the most common, and least discussed, experiences in drug-free neurological recovery for children. A child with autism, ADHD, sensory processing challenges, anxiety, or developmental delays can be making remarkable progress, then seemingly stall out or regress without warning. Sleep disruptions return. Sensory behaviors that appeared to be resolved come back. Emotional regulation deteriorates.

These plateaus are not signs that the care plan is failing. According to Dr. Tony Ebel, DC, CACCP, they are evidence that the child’s nervous system is working through deeper layers of dysfunction and reorganizing to a new level of function. Research on neuroplasticity confirms that the brain doesn’t heal in a straight line, it advances in rapid bursts, then consolidates those gains before the next leap forward.

There are five primary causes of healing plateaus in pediatric neurological care: growth spurts and developmental milestones, immune challenges and fever, life stress and emotional load, toxin overload, and intervention overload. Understanding which category is driving a plateau is the first step toward breaking through it, and knowing that some causes are unavoidable helps parents stay the course without panic.

What Are Healing Plateaus, and Why Do They Happen? [00:00 – 03:00]

Dr. Tony Ebel: One of the things not talked about nearly enough in the natural and drug-free healing world is something called healing plateaus and regressions. These are very common, often natural and normal, and truth be told, extremely frustrating, disheartening, and discouraging aspects of the healing journey for many patients and parents.

Often you’ll be making incredible strides in progress, and then seemingly out of nowhere things slow down, stall out, or stop altogether. Maybe you’ve even noticed some regression behaviors, sensory issues returning that you thought were gone forever, sleep disruptions creeping back in, or emotional regulation challenges resurfacing.

If you’re wondering if the care plan is failing or if something’s wrong, take a deep breath and hear this: Plateaus and even regressions are often a normal and necessary part of the healing process. The neurological healing journey is rarely a straight line. It’s more like a rollercoaster with its fair share of ups, downs, and unexpected twists.

Here’s what most parents and providers miss: those plateaus aren’t always signs of failure. They are actually evidence that your child’s nervous system is working through deeper layers of dysfunction and adapting to a new level of organization.

“Those plateaus aren’t always signs of failure. They are actually evidence that your child’s nervous system is working through deeper layers of dysfunction and adapting to a new level of organization.”

This message is for parents whose children are on a drug-free neurological healing journey, whether your child struggles with sensory issues, ADD, ADHD, autism, developmental delays, or anything else, and you’ve noticed periods where progress seems to stall or even reverse. Today we’ll explain why these plateaus happen, break down the science behind them, and get you the confidence to navigate through and break through to the healing journey on the other side.

The Neuroscience of Non-Linear Healing [03:00 – 06:00]

Nearly every parent who brings their child in for care will experience what research calls non-linear healing progress. Research on neuroplasticity shows us that the brain has the ability to reorganize itself, forming new connections and in some instances even generating new neurons and synapses. Children typically experience periods of rapid advancement followed by consolidation phases where skills are integrated.

The same pattern applies to neurological healing. It’s kind of like two steps forward, one step to the side or back. Progression is not always linear, and hitting a plateau is not a failure, it’s the brain’s natural way of reorganizing and creating lasting change.

After almost two decades of clinical practice working not just at the beginning of care, but all the way through months and years with families, I can tell you this: the rollercoaster is pretty normal, especially with tougher neurological delays. This is how healing happens.

There are two broad categories in this list. The first contains things we cannot avoid, growth spurts, teething, fevers, illnesses, weather changes. The second contains things we actually have control over, toxin load and intervention overload. By the end, you’ll be able to identify which category is at play and know exactly what action, if any, to take.

Factor #1: Growth Spurts and Developmental Milestones [06:00 – 09:00]

Let’s start with the single most common cause. Every child, this is a pediatric conversation, goes through growth spurts and developmental milestones. When the body is going through a growth spurt, it has to allocate its resources to keep up with that growth or developmental surge. That’s what milestones are.

Neurodevelopment isn’t linear, it’s not step by step like chapters in a textbook. Growth and development with the nervous system is more like interval training. Think Tabata, CrossFit, high-intensity interval training: you push your nervous system hard, then you get some rest, and that rest time is where the adaptation actually happens.

Physical growth spurts, neurological growth spurts, even social-emotional growth spurts all work this way. Seemingly overnight, your child is two inches taller, six pounds heavier, or suddenly talking in sentences. This is how development happens, in surges.

“The resources to heal and the resources to keep up with growth and development come from the same shop, they come from the same factory.”

When a child hits a growth spurt, we see regularly in practice that their healing from autism, epilepsy, or whatever we’re working on may just slow down, stall out, and reach a plateau. The neurophysiological ATP, the actual mitochondrial healing energy in the nervous system, has to split its allocation. They’re eating more, sleeping more, a little moodier. That’s the growth spurt affecting healing too. They’re still making progress; it just changes pace for a season.

Factor #2: Immune Challenges and Fever [09:00 – 11:00]

The second factor is immune challenges, fever, cold, flu, those kinds of immune system demands. The nervous system controls social, emotional, and cognitive development. When a child working through sensory challenges, behavior challenges, anxiety, or autism gets sick and their immune system is working overtime to fight an illness, it throws the nervous system and brain off track.

There’ll likely be a plateau, and possibly even a regression, in sensory and behavior progress. In the epilepsy world, we know clearly that when a child has a fever, they’re at increased risk for an uptick in seizures. There’s significant neurophysiological science behind this, involving the hypothalamus, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and the Vagus Nerve.

The neuro-immune system, because the nervous system controls the immune system, controls and coordinates healing, the gut, the immune system, and the endocrine system. If it has to redirect resources toward fighting a virus or bacteria, healing progress will plateau. This is completely normal and natural when a child is working through an illness.

Factor #3: Life Stress and the Fight-or-Flight Response [11:00 – 15:00]

The third factor is the busyness and stress of life. When life gets emotionally heavy, loss of a loved one, relationship stress in the family, a maxed-out schedule, the nervous system responds to that chaos with a Sympathetic surge, a fight-or-flight response. And the fight-or-flight side of the nervous system is always in the way of healing, development, and progress.

This connects directly to what we teach: Subluxation and Sympathetic Dominance are the root causes of why our kids struggle in the first place. The healing care plan is built around getting rid of stuck stress on the nervous system and body. So when external stress levels spike, it works against that process.

This is also the right moment to teach the core lesson: not all stress is bad. Growth spurts are needed, that’s how the body gets stronger. Teething is essential to train the nervous system to handle stress. Fever is essential to building a stronger, more resilient immune system. This is a foundational principle of Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care: we don’t get kids healthy by avoiding all stress. We get kids to develop optimally and heal fully by building resilience and adaptability.

When your child has a growth spurt, a fever, an illness, or is working through a detox, and they’re going through a plateau or regression, if you stay the course and keep adding healing to the system, you’re going to get a child whose nervous system, health, and quality of life is significantly better as a result of going through the plateau and coming out stronger on the other side.

Factor #4: Too Many Toxins [15:00 – 17:00]

Factors four and five are the controllable ones. Number four: too many toxins. This is a case where a child may be receiving Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care, PT, OT, and speech therapy, all the right neurological work, but their immune system and gut are still exposed to too many toxins.

This calls for cleaning up the diet: removing gluten and grains, getting dairy out, and eliminating preservatives, pesticides, and chemicals from food. It also means looking at the home environment. Once you open this box, you’ll see chemicals are everywhere, in cleaners, clothing, laundry and dishwasher detergents, cookware, food packaging.

If you can’t pronounce it, don’t put it in your child’s food. If you can’t pronounce it, don’t put it in their cleaners.

One of the most common patterns we see when kids plateau is that they have everything they need neurophysiologically, but it’s a tug-of-war: continued toxin exposure is offsetting the healing gains. In these cases, every time, we empower and equip families with specific ways to clean up the diet and environment and get the toxins out of the way.

Factor #5: Too Many Good Things, Intervention Overload [17:00 – 24:00]

“Often what the nervous system needs to heal is just more room, more space.”

The fifth factor is probably the most counterintuitive on this list, and it doesn’t get talked about nearly enough by providers: too many interventions at once. PT, OT, speech therapy, ABA, biomedical protocols, homeopathics, supplements, vitamins, IVIG, detoxes, binders, fermented foods, essential oils, all of these can be good. But all of them happening simultaneously to an already overwhelmed, dysregulated nervous system can keep that system spinning its tires.

The most common clinical presentation we see today is parents doing 50 things at once to get their child to heal. That commitment is admirable. But the neurophysiology of root-cause healing shows us that what the nervous system needs most to fully reorganize is space.

This is where the medication conversation sometimes comes in. Using INSiGHT Scans to track neurophysiological progress, not just symptomatic progress, we can often see when a plateau is connected to medication load. When a child’s neurophysiological function has improved significantly, the original indication for a medication may no longer exist. ADHD stimulants, for example, are Schedule II narcotics. If the root-cause dysfunction is being addressed and corrected, continuing the same medication at the same dose can actually cause the symptoms it was prescribed for. That’s worth a conversation with the prescribing physician, not something in a chiropractor’s scope, but absolutely part of the full clinical picture.

Picking Up the Plow

The farmer analogy that ties this together is what we call picking up the plow. If you’re trying to drive your car forward but a plow blade is still stuck in the ground dragging behind you, no amount of gas gets you far. Pick up the plow, reduce the intervention load, and suddenly you can pop the clutch and break through.

If it’s appropriate to back off on medication (that decision belongs with the prescribing physician), or to pull back on the number of concurrent therapies, or to pause some supplements and detoxes, clearing that space often triggers the breakthrough that’s been stalled.

When Multiple Factors Combine: The Mini Perfect Storm [24:00 – 26:00]

Here’s the reality most parents face: the majority of healing plateaus we encounter in practice aren’t caused by a single item on this list. It’s usually a growth spurt combined with teething, happening in the middle of spring, when there’s a full moon, and the family is slammed with end-of-school chaos. Two, three, four, or five factors pile up simultaneously, and that combination is enough to stall or reverse progress.

That’s a mini Perfect Storm of its own, mirroring the original Perfect Storm framework that explains how children develop neurological dysfunction in the first place: stressors compounding in combination, not in isolation.

The goal of this breakdown is to give you the full picture. Sometimes you’ll look at this list and be able to say, “It’s this and that, and neither of those are in our control right now, so we stay the course.” Other times you’ll see one or two controllable factors and know exactly where to take action. Those cases are actually the more straightforward ones: identify it, address it, and get to breakthrough.

Most of the time, plateaus are simply one or more external stressors creating headwind. Once that stressor passes and your child builds resilience through it, the result is a forward leap, bam, off to the races.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did my child suddenly stop making progress with chiropractic care?

A sudden stall in progress is almost always caused by one or more of five factors: a growth spurt, an immune challenge (illness or fever), life stress triggering a fight-or-flight response, toxin overload from food or the environment, or too many interventions at once overwhelming the nervous system. According to Dr. Tony Ebel, most plateaus involve more than one factor piling up simultaneously, a mini Perfect Storm that temporarily diverts neurophysiological resources away from healing.

Are healing plateaus and regressions normal in neurological recovery?

Yes. Research on neuroplasticity shows that children’s brains reorganize in rapid spurts followed by consolidation phases, not in a straight, continuous line. Dr. Tony Ebel explains that a plateau is often evidence that the nervous system is working through deeper layers of dysfunction before the next leap forward. Regression of symptoms like sensory behaviors or sleep disruptions during a growth spurt or illness is expected and typically temporary.

Can a growth spurt cause my child’s autism or ADHD symptoms to get worse?

Yes, temporarily. The body’s neurophysiological resources for healing and for physical or neurological development come from the same source. During a growth spurt, those resources are redirected toward supporting rapid development, which can slow or temporarily pause healing progress for conditions like autism, ADHD, sensory processing disorder, and seizures. The plateau typically resolves once the growth phase passes, often followed by accelerated healing.

Should my child reduce therapies or supplements if they hit a healing plateau?

Possibly, if intervention overload is the likely cause. A child already receiving multiple therapies, supplements, detoxes, and biomedical protocols simultaneously may have a nervous system too overwhelmed to make progress. Dr. Tony Ebel calls this “picking up the plow”, reducing the intervention load to give the nervous system space to reorganize and heal. INSiGHT Scans used in Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care can help identify whether a plateau is driven by overload. Any changes to medications should be discussed with the prescribing physician.

How does a fever affect my child’s healing progress?

Fever redirects nervous system resources toward fighting infection, which can temporarily plateau progress in sensory, behavioral, and neurological areas. In children with epilepsy, fever increases seizure risk. However, Dr. Tony Ebel notes that fever is not inherently harmful, it’s an essential immune-strengthening process. The key is knowing that any regression during illness is likely temporary, and staying the course with Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care allows the nervous system to come out stronger and more resilient on the other side.

How do I find a neurologically-focused chiropractor for my child?

The PX Docs directory lists certified Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care providers across the country, all trained in the clinical protocols Dr. Tony Ebel teaches in collaboration with Life University’s Postgraduate Department. You can search by location at the link below.

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