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The Journalist in me... Cause and Effect

  • Writer: Elyse Sevi
    Elyse Sevi
  • Oct 1, 2022
  • 2 min read

This blog takes the questions I have as a mom, and turns them into research, and hopefully answers as a journalist.


Roman at just around 3-4-weeks old.


Until now...


I've been writing as a mom up until now. I'm also a journalist and have been for the past 15 years. It's my thirst for knowledge and quest for answers that brings me to this blog. A simple Google search led me to several blogs, and a small study talking about the pandemic and its effect on our children's development. Let me lay out what I found.... so far.


The Findings.


Researchers printed their results of a small study done on infants under 6-month of age in the JAMA Pediatrics Journal. They looked at kids born during the pandemic so March 2020 to December 2020.


What they found: in simple terms, COVID-19 had no affect on children in utero, however, the isolation, depression, and anxieties from the pandemic itself DOES have an affect on a child's development.


Dr. Claire McCarthy, MD, a primary care physician at Boston Hospital, Senior Faculty Editor, Harvard Health Publishing, explains here.


Even though we need to do more research, this study should serve as an alarm bell for us as a society. The children of this pandemic may carry some scars forever if we don’t act now. We’ve been seeing the emotional and educational effects on children; we need to be aware of the developmental effects on babies, too. All of these could permanently change their lives." Dr. Caire McCarthy, MD

Roman at around 6-weeks-old.


In her blog ,she talks about how crucial the first three years of a child's life are in brain development. My son Roman, born in March 2020, spent two-and-a-half-years, isolated from the world, seeing most adults with masks on, and only socializing with myself and my husband.


"Babies need to be touched, held, spoken to, smiled at, played with. As they receive and respond to those interactions, in a "serve and return" kind of way, neural connections are built in the brain. When babies don’t have those interactions, or enough of them, their brains don’t develop as they should — and can even be literally smaller." - Dr. Claire McCarthy, MD


The Bottom Line.


According to Dr. McCarthy, this is only one small study, but it does shed light on what we as parents and this generation of children may face in the future. It needs to be on everyone's radar.


"...parents and caregivers of infants and toddlers need to know about this research — and ask for help. It’s understandable and natural for parents to think that babies are too small and unaware to be affected by the pandemic. But they are affected, in ways that could be long-lasting." - Dr. Claire McCarthy, MD


Connect with me!

Please, feel free to reach out to me on social or email. I would love to hear your stories, share your stories on this platform, but also do the research and ask experts what we can do to give our kids the best future possible.

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