When it comes to having a healthy baby, there are many aspects of a child’s health that parents and caregivers need to know. We spoke with two area pediatricians who shared insight on some of the latest health trends for babies and ways we can keep our babies healthy.
Dr. Arthur Lavin, a pediatrician at Akron Children’s Hospital pediatrics group and committee chair for the American Academy of Pediatrics, says although pregnancy and childbirth can be fraught with risks, overwhelmingly, a healthy baby tends to stay healthy.
He says it wasn’t always that way.
“The major trend over, say, the last 100 years, has been a revolution in the safety of being a baby in terms of illness,” he says. “That has a lot to do with getting rid of germs in drinking water, so the provision of clean water was revolutionary. And the other thing we need to say is that the invention of vaccines has changed the course of history. Today, kids who are immunized don’t have to worry about those infections. The risks of severe, dangerous infectious disease in infancy have been eliminated with the invention of vaccines.”
“We have vanquished them to a large degree. COVID is an interruption in the modern story of vanquishing infectious disease.”
Common Questions About Food
“So, the very first question is ‘Is everything ok? Do I have a healthy baby?’” Lavin says. The next question is “Is my baby growing?”
Once you know you have a healthy baby, then you need to know if the feeding, whether you are breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, is working, Lavin says. He has co-authored two books on parenting: “Who’s the Boss: Moving Families from Conflict to Collaboration,” and the Dummies book on sleep, “Baby & Toddler Sleep Solutions for Dummies.”
He says the question of “Is my baby healthy?” is usually settled by an exam shortly after a baby is born. In a few cases, questions may come up that require follow-through to see if there is a problem, but most of the time, parents get the happy news that they have a healthy baby.
The next huge question is if the baby is getting enough food. Most pediatricians will schedule a follow-up appointment two to four days after discharge, and another appointment shortly after that, so parents can track a baby’s weight gain. Once a baby demonstrates a half-ounce to an ounce of weight gain per day, the feeding question is also answered.
“There’s no app to tell you whether your baby is born healthy,” Lavin says. “You need an exam for that. But for the question of whether my baby is growing well, there are lots of apps to help you approximate whether you are getting enough food for your baby.”
There are apps that help Moms track how long they are nursing, how long the baby is suckling at each breast at each feeding, and the intervals between the feeds, as well as how often a baby is pooping and peeing.
“All of those things are indirect indicators, which can be very reliable, actually, that your feeding is doing well,” Lavin says. “So, those apps really help parents see that the baby is getting the right number of feeds, that they are spending the right amount of time nursing, or that they are getting the right number of ounces drinking from a bottle, if that’s how they are being fed,” Lavin says.
Dr. Allie Effron, pediatrician and co-founder of Greater Cleveland Pediatrics, agrees that technology has been helpful, especially when it comes to virtual or video visits. Some families are more interested in apps and being connected to their devices, for tracking a child’s weight or heart rate.
“In pediatrics, for many families that can be a big source of support,” she says. “There’s so much in pediatrics that can be helped by just having a conversation and educating patients. Sometimes when it’s outside the walls of the office, it’s much more convenient for families… Connecting with their doctor from home has really been helpful, especially for new parents.”
Growing Concerns About Normal Development
Lavin, who has helped parents care for their babies for more than 35 years, says the biggest worries in infancy are now concerns over normal development.
“I’d say the No. 1 threat to a healthy child’s development today is autism, which we now call ‘autism spectrum disorder,’” Lavin says.
For many years, going back to 1960, the chance of a child developing autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder hovered around one in 1,000 to 2,000. It was rare and unusual. Since 1990, for reasons that aren’t fully known, the number of children diagnosed with autism has gotten much higher.
“In fact, the CDC just came out with its most recent prevalence reports this year, and we were shocked to see that number has grown to one in 48,” Lavin says. “So now, more than one in 50 children born will end up having autism.”
Another big question parents want to know about is a child’s success academically, especially as they get closer to school age.
“That’s where you get into issues like ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), learning disorders, and other cognitive dysfunctions, which are very common now,” Lavin says.
“When it comes to autism, it’s a spectrum, so the very severe end of the spectrum where a child is completely cut off from any social connectivity to others can be suspected early in life,” Lavin says. “If someone has a mild or milder form, there may be some connectivity, so you might not see a difference until later in life, until they’re toddlers or older. ADHD, you shouldn’t really diagnose until a little later in life, into the preschool ages. [Parents] should contact their pediatrician [if concerned.] The best way to diagnose either of those issues is to be formally tested by a psychologist trained in diagnosing those disorders.”
Baby-Led Weaning Becomes More Popular
“There’s a lot of interest in various ways to introduce babies to solid foods, and one of those is baby-led weaning,” Effron says. “It’s really a newer approach for families to introduce foods to their babies with more of a focus on babies picking up food, and starting with a broader range of foods.”
This gives babies a chance to explore and feed themselves with their own hands, rather than parents giving their babies pureed foods. “This is one the of the specific trends that has come up with my patients over the last couple of years,” Effron adds.
Baby-led weaning, or BLW, involves adding complementary foods to a baby’s diet of breast milk or baby formula. It starts with soft foods babies can easily pick up themselves — like sliced bananas, orange wedges, steamed broccoli, or steamed sweet potato.
One of the biggest concerns is to not give babies food that would be a choking risk, or food that a baby is not able to pick up and put into their mouths themselves. Parents should avoid round foods like cherry tomatoes or grapes, and harder foods like popcorn or whole nuts.
“The goal is to start with foods that are soft, and typically foods that are shaped like a stick or a finger, that a baby can pick up with their palm, and certainly, there’s a lot of parental engagement, supervision and involvement,” she says.
BLW encourages babies to try solid foods while dining together as a family. Baby-led weaning allows babies to become familiar with a variety of flavors and textures. It also promotes fine motor skill development.
“There’s some discussion that it may help babies be more in control of their own diet, and learn their own hunger cues, when they are satisfied and full, a little bit earlier. It also helps them to have a healthy relationship with food throughout their whole lives,” Effron says.
Families Are Spending More Time Outdoors
Effron says with COVID, and families having a lot of screen time over the past few years, spending time outdoors has allowed families to refocus and reconnect.
“Even young babies can benefit from being outside in nature, for a variety of reasons,” she says. “One being that exposure to natural sunlight can really help with their circadian rhythms and help with their sleep patterns. So, exposure to natural light during the day can help them adjust to regular sleep patterns and understand the difference between day and night. It can even be helpful for the earliest newborns, as well as for other young kids and babies.”
It might mean taking them for a walk in a stroller, or baby-wearing. Being outside exposes children to new sights, smells, or new sensations, such as feeling the wind outside, or hearing the noises of nature.
Spending time outdoors can facilitate learning and exploration. It can be something simple like a short walk outside, drawing with chalk on the sidewalk, or picking up rocks as you walk the dog.
“For some families, it might be bringing some of that nature inside, like adding plants or simple animals, like adding fish in a fish tank,” she adds. “It still gives kids the ability to explore and connect with the natural world even from inside their homes.”
A Return to Old-Fashioned Care
Another growing trend Effron sees is patients want to connect with their doctors, pediatricians and health-care providers on a more personal level.
“There’s been a growing trend over the past couple of years of going back to old-school medicine, having a personal relationship with your doctor, and being able to have someone you can reach and be in contact with more often,” Effron says.
People want to be able to reach out to their doctor. They want to be able to connect virtually, or by text or email, and they want to have close communication with their healthcare team. Medicine is not one size fits all, she says.
These relationships allow doctors and patients to hear from each other regarding any goals or concerns they may have.
“Technology can be used in a lot of ways, but it starts with that one-on-one relationship,” Effron says. “I know for my patients, technology helps them be in contact more often than maybe in the past. My patients can text me directly, and we can get in contact quickly, and it’s a way to be in contact outside of the physical walls of the office, but it always starts with that one-on-one relationship.”