By Michael Mistroff
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
After giving birth to her pandemic baby in May, 2020, Jennifer Ryu initially worried about the impact that isolation could have on her daughter’s development.
“Louise totally gets cabin fever,” said Ryu, 33, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. “We can only do so much to stimulate them. I need to send that girl to daycare. She needs some different level of stimulation than what we can provide.”
Like Ryu, other parents have had concerns that social isolation, social distancing, and wearing masks could have a damaging effect on the development of children. But experts say babies are too young to be cognitively impacted.
According to Towson University assistant professor Jacqueline Leventon, who holds a doctorate in psychology, children born into the pandemic are too young to be impacted cognitively.
“They’re not making use of social interactions,” Leventon said. “If we look at the first three to six months of development, infants aren’t really getting a lot from social interactions.”
Leventon said the impact that is more concerning is on parents’ mental health and how that could impact the quality of care they’re giving their child.
“It’s really the parent that is impacted by the pandemic,” Leventon said. “We know the data with adults and the pandemic. We see a rise of anxiety, a rise in depression and other emotion related psychopathologies. It’s via that route that we’re concerned about the kinds of quality caregiving that might be available to young children.”
While Ryu has had anything but a normal first year with her daughter, she is confident the precautions that Americans have taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 will not have a damaging effect on her.
“Kids are pretty resilient,” Ryu said. “I don’t discount the mental health issues that come from this. But I think the babies will be okay. Like the little ones, I think they’ll be okay.”
For many families, COVID-19 has become a source of tension as not everyone shares the same level of comfort, nor does everyone take the same level of precaution.
Lindsay Harvey, 31, is a therapist who gave birth to her first child in June, 2020. She said it was hard not letting her mother-in-law who works in a nursing home hold her son, Miles. “It was hard struggling to tell my husband that I’m not comfortable with this child’s grandmother holding him,” Harvey said. “She has a hard time not taking it personally like I don’t want her to hold him versus the dangers of covid.”
Ryu said it’s been challenging navigating familial relationships during covid times but stressed the importance of following CDC guidelines to protect her baby’s health.
“Being a healthcare provider, you see how covid affects patients,” Ryu said. “As a parent of a newborn, I’m pretty stern. But I do get sad that my friends don’t know her. We’re going to come out of covid and she’s going to be a year and a half.”
Ryu also called out the misinformation related to children and masks that she’s seen posted on social media. According to the CDC, it is safe for children two years of age or older to wear a mask.
“There’s people who are saying kids aren’t able to recognize non-verbal cues and facial expressions because of all the ‘harm that masks are doing,’” Ryu said. “First of all, how often are you out that the baby is only seeing you in a mask? At home, you do your best to mimic normalcy as much as possible.”
While wearing masks to prevent the spread of illness is new for the United States, Leventon said that in looking at data from eastern cultures, masks do not appear to have a negative impact on language development for children.
“They’re actually picking up a lot about language on their own,” Leventon said. “Getting that facial information is an additional bonus. Where we would be concerned is if a child never saw a face and never had an opportunity to see the mouth movements.”
With the rollout of the vaccine and the continued reopening of the country, Americans are starting to see the light of a new day. But for a child having spent the first year of their life in isolation, sudden exposure to crowds or large groups of people could be overwhelming. Leventon said parents need to be more thoughtful when approaching change for children who prefer familiarity.
“It depends on temperament to some extent,” Leventon said. “A sudden shift to seeing a lot of people could be overwhelming. But it likely wouldn’t cause long term behavioral challenges or psychological well-being concerns.”
Harvey said that while she’s just starting to realize how much connection she and Miles have missed out on in the last year, she thinks his personality has been key to his beginning to interact with the outside world.
“He’s such a talky little boy,” Harvey said. “Every time he sees a car or person he’s waving. I think his personality has helped with it being not as stressful as it could.”