To think there needs to be a public inquiry into child development

Perhaps you get "shouted down" because you use vile, judgmental language like "the quality of the public" @MaryMaryVeryContrary .

Behavioural issues and additional needs are not matters of "quality". That implies that you consider children with such challenges inferior and somehow less worthy than children without those challenges. That attitude was well on the way to being out of fashion when I started school more than 60 years ago, when kids with additional needs were (barely) educated in special schools and some of the most challenging spent their whole lives in residential care where they were basically locked away and left to rot.

If you want to have a conversation about how best to meet the needs of such children, and how to improve education and support parents so that they can manage to do that, then try saying so without demeaning them.

Not a pain at all. I’ll happy send it to anyone who asks, just not sure I can post it publicly because it is behind a paywall.

I work in mental health.

The pandemic has clearly compounded issues that were already growing steadily before. Children have suffered terribly. Gaming, over exposure to screens and social media, a poor diet, a lack of fresh air and nature based activities daily, vitamin deficiencies and a woeful mental health sector that is under so much pressure and can only see the most serious of cases. Overworked, exhausted parents that often can not cope.
I can not see a single political party even acknowledging the issue much less willing to address it.

I live rurally and the children here seem to be happy and balanced if I am being honest. Having a traditional childhood. They spend so much time outside, but I cover a deprived area and the issues are shocking, pressing and the real emergency we are facing.

No to a public enquiry as they are so slow but yes, there's definitely something going on. Investment in education and children's mental health would be a start. Maybe a good use for the vat on school fees?

I’m constantly amazed by the stories of children not being toilet trained by the time they go to school. It is 63 years since I started school and in those days children were toilet trained, able to write their names and numbers up to ten by the time they started. I think it is a combination of lax parenting and screens that is the trouble. There were plenty of families in those days where both parents worked, mine included.

Utter bollocks, 5 adults not bothering their arse, no excuse

stop coming up with excuses for piss poor lazy parents

This isn't new though. Drug addicts and people "of low intelligence" have always had children. Surely even more so before modern inventions like long acting reversible contraception (implant, coil etc).

There is one, that I know of. His mother thinks she can ‘cure’ him by cutting out screens feeding him a low allergen diet and giving supplements. He has made a ton of progress but it’s hard to know what, if anything, has made the difference.
I frequently see parents ignoring their child’s rare attempts to communicate because they have their own face in a phone.

Agree re overworked parents. Currently the people are to serve the economy which serves to make a few people both rich and powerful. A change from the social contract model we had in the 70s - though that included very disruptive children as there were always parents who could not parent very well. Short of revolution, and a rejection of the idea that everyone is an economic cog and thus is you are not cogging you are worthless (economically inactive = lazy so-and-so who would rather be at home with kids/aged parents/disabled relative than go and do a proper job). To rectify this needs a social change and an economic change. CEO (?) of Carphone Warehouse on TV this a.m. saying Britain needs to be 'open for business' and the workforce competitive; in plain English this means allowing the selling of infrastructure and businesses to foreign investors who are going to want fewer workers' rights as they put up the price of goods/services. This does not affect only factory and manual workers, it affects doctors, solicitors, professional people who are about to discover that their work too can be outsourced somewhere cheaper. Carphone Warehouse man wants us to keep on cogging. As long as we do so the fewer chances of decent lives for anyone, and we ought to be worrying about the number of children who are going to suffer for this.

I remember really bad behaviour in school when I was a kid and a lot of antisocial behaviour outside of school(less now presumably because they are all gaming). Loads of shoplifting as well. Schools could expel children far more easily which got them out of the classroom. I remember about 5 or 6 boys got expelled from my quite small year group(no idea where they went). There was also a lot of nasty bullying. I don’t think attendance was monitored quite so strictly and no one seemed that bothered if someone was off school pretty regularly. Mental health and physical health were not great with lots of smoking, drinking, drugs, anorexia, underage sex, self harm etc. Adults seemed to turn a blind eye so I imagine there wasn’t much data on it. I think suicide rates in teens are gradually falling.

One of the reasons not mentioned above is the lack of omega 3 in maternal diets which effect the brain development of the fetus. This study was published in 2020:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9897595/#:~:text=2016%3B%20Suren%20et%20al.,by%20detailed%20timing%20during%20pregnancy.

Lack of omega 3 combined with B vitamins is having a similar effect on brain decline and increasing levels of dementia and Alzheimers.

We talk extensively about mental health but nobody ever addresses brain health…..

Millennial here.

I was raised with significant help from my grandparents who were very hands on. We’re talking me going to their house for weeks and weekends multiple times a year. Chipping in for costs if school trips etc.

I have a child now and do you think my mother who had significant support raising me has paid it forward? Fuck no.

I’ve raised my disabled child solo and it has been a detriment. I’ve had to scrape by and really fight just to give my Child a fraction of the childhood I had.

and yes because I’ve had to do this solo I’ve had to cut corners with parenting even though I don’t want to. I can never be sick, have a break or breathe. Even discharging myself mere hours after major surgery because there was no overnight help for my child. I’ve had to rely on frozen meals and screen time more than I’d like even though I was super strict and haven’t allowed a social media or a smart phone.

I honestly think the lack of hands on support from wider family is harming our children. Wider Family helped buff out the rough spots because none of us are perfect.

I’ve PM’d you this

No surprise of childhood obesity/ poor mental health when:

Fed is best - no, healthy balanced diet is best

Lack of home cooked meals. I blame this on poor wages and poor work life balance. Not parents fault but employers paying poverty wages.

Screens - they stunt development (WHO report)

Lack of outdoor, free play

Too much homework, oppressive schools, stress of exams cause poor mental health

I'm sure there is more, but look back 40 years and you didn't have these problems. Modern living is the problem.

Go back to basics.

And less patience, more need for the dopamine hit of what they want to see and decreased tolerance of not being stimulated, particularly by what they want to engage in and don't want to be engaged in.

I'm in my 40s and although I've opted out of some of the more toxic elements of social media and screen use, it's still had a massive impact on my attention levels, my patience and even, my tolerance at work and in every day life, of things I don't like or am not interested in.

If I'd been brought up on being constantly stimulated and algorithms constantly feeding me what stimulated me, it would be much worse.

The holiday thing is the worst. Toddlers on the beach on an iPad like come The fuck on the activity is the beach! Parents drinking and on phone/reading whilst not supervising. It’s really awful/sad.

@Packingcubesqueen I agree. On the school run I frequently see toddlers sat in buggies holding phones and watching YouTube on them. It's very sad and it's scary how common it is. It can't be good for them.

Exhausted adults probably working full time so really need that rest which then impacts the child. Having a sahp if that’s what the family want to do shouldn’t be discouraged and punished but a valid choice

IMO screens are a real issue, especially for the ND. I work with under 5’s with Autism. I work with 2 kids who never don’t have a screen. They take it everywhere and meltdown if the battery dies. The parents look at me like I’ve suggested murdering a kitten when I mention trying to reduce their screen time.

Quite a lot of people don’t seem to realise neurodivergence's are hereditary and that autistic people can and do have children - and your chance of having a child with a ND is almost as high as 50% in some cases, especially when ND people have children with ND people - which they often do and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Can't access the BMJ, do you have the text please?

Couldn’t agree more. I’ve just been on holidays and witnessed a family at the pool. 5 adults and a child aged mono more than 2. Adults all lying on loungers, child watching something on a phone…he was absolutely crying out for attention and just some interaction. Every adult he approached “go and see your mum” child went to mum “go and see your dad” child went to dad “see nana” and on and on it went.
I wish I could say it was the only family like this we saw but it was more the norm than the exception.

Yes tech has its place, but it was a crying shame…no wonder children don’t know how to interact with the world when those who are supposed to teach them don’t bother their arse