It’s hard to remember what life looked like before smartphones.
When Facebook wasn’t there to give us a constant stream of “news”, and when you couldn’t whittle away half an hour scrolling through Instagram to see what everyone had for breakfast this morning.
But addicted as we are to our little hand-held devices, were you aware that you mobile phone habit might pose bad new for your baby? In fact, researchers at the University of California believe that inattentive mums yield babies with poorer brain development – and blame some of our lack of attention on our constant need to check our phones.
Of course, smartphones aren’t entirely to blame (God knows we can be distracted by many other things too, no?!), but experts have noted our constant draw to their lure, and are now fearing what this will mean for today’s infants.
Seeing as babies depend on entirely on mum’s constant nurturing, too many frequent distractions can actually lead to the following effects in newborns according to the new study:
1. Stunt baby’s developing brain. As scary as this sounds, researchers at the University of California, Irvine, are convinced sporadic and inconsistent maternal care can limit the growth of a baby’s neuron networks.
2. Substance abuse. According to the experts, mums who fail to limit cell phone use and other distractions run the risk of their little ones having a much higher chance of developing drug and alcohol problem later in life.
3. Cause poor emotional health. An increased vulnerability to emotional disorders can follow if infants have suffered from lack of care.
Dr. Tallie Z. Baram and her colleagues at UCI’s Conte Center on Brain Programming in Adolescent Vulnerabilities believe that their studies, albeit so far only conducted on rodents, have shown that consistent rhythms and patterns of maternal care seem to be crucially important for the developing brain, which needs predictable and continuous stimuli to ensure the growth of robust neuron networks.
“It is known that vulnerability to emotional disorders, such as depression, derives from interactions between our genes and the environment, especially during sensitive developmental periods,” says Baram.
“Our work builds on many studies showing that maternal care is important for future emotional health. Importantly, it shows that it is not how much maternal care that influences adolescent behavior but the avoidance of fragmented and unpredictable care that is crucial. We might wish to turn off the mobile phone when caring for baby and be predictable and consistent.”
Whoops. Are YOU guilty (too) of constantly fiddling with your phone while also looking after your baby? Join in the conversation with us on Twitter at @Herfamilydotie
