Retained moulding can cause many problems in the first few months, such as excessive crying, irritability, sleep disturbance, feeding difficulties, reflux and colic, as the newborn's digestive tract is immature at birth.

After a time the child may appear to grow out of these early symptoms as the flexible nature of the newborn skull and body learns to adapt, but without treatment the cause of the problem remains in the body. With age the whole system becomes less fluid and more bony, so its capacity to manage these strains decreases, while at the same time it is growing into a strained pattern: “As the twig is bent so shall the tree incline”. Thus birth trauma can appear not to be an issue, sometimes for many years, until a time when the body is asked to cope with some new challenge that it cannot meet.

As the child grows, abnormal tension in the musculo-skeletal system can make it difficult to sit still and may lead to poor concentration, often an important factor in learning difficulties and behavioural problems. The middle ear of children up to seven years of age can be prone to infections, in part related to the maturation of the bones of the face and head. A child whose body is under continual strain is more likely to suffer from recurrent infections such as glue ear, tonsillitis, coughs and colds and may have further health issues such as asthma and eczema. By around the age of seven the bones in the body are becoming harder and less springy. Some children then start to have symptoms such as headache because the body is finding it increasingly difficult to compensate for the strain patterns in the structure.