The body is stiff or hypertonic. Tone means the amount of tension in the muscles. Hyper- means too much When the body is hypertonic, it is harder to control the movements of the jaw, tongue, lips, and cheeks for feeding. These become more uncontrolled as the body gets stiff. The body is floppy or hypotonic.
Tone means the amount of tension in the muscles.
Hypo- means too little. The tongue, cheeks, and lips are often floppy or low in muscle tone too. When this happens food sometimes falls out of the mouth or is pushed out by the tongue. It is also hard to learn to suck in a more advanced way or to chew food when the body and mouth are hypotonic. The head pushes backward into extension.