Effects of COVID on babies born in lockdown year

[PlantDoctor]

Just been reading this BBC article about kids starting school who were born during lockdown.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39kry9j3rno

DD was born just before lockdown so luckily was able to meet grandparents etc. before the first lockdown, but thinking back it was such an isolating time. I remember being grateful she was only tiny and didn't understand she was missing out, but obviously now we can see the effects of babies not socialising with others. It says 1/3 of this cohort have additional speech and language needs, and I know DD's preschool teacher said theirs was a particularly difficult year.

Crazy times.

Good luck to all the covid lockdown babies starting school this September xx

Mine too. First four months in lockdown and saw nobody except me and his dad and the nurse to get vaccines. I'll always wonder what effect lockdown had, I'm assuming nothing good. I kick myself for following the rules, there would've been no harm if my DC had also been with their grandparents. I was so brainwashed and fearful 😔

I am hoping it had a greater effect on me than them :( but yeah it's always going to be with us

Had mine one month before. Feel really fortunate there are no obvious problems, but who knows what effects we can't see.

I know I still haven't completely gotten over it.

I don’t think there’s any need to scaremonger like this. Yes, for some people it will have been bad. For others, it will have been much better than rushing back to a busy job/world meaning extra time at home. Chances are, we’ll never really know. For two children in our family, you wouldn’t know. One is much more outgoing and sociable than his older non-Covid born big brother. As with many things, social economic privilege will have played a part. Those with the resources will have thrived. It’s those without who will have suffered.

That's the point of the study

Interesting. I had a 2yo when covid hit and then had DC2 in summer 2020. I've never worried about the impact on DC2, she was so little she didn't need any more than we were able to give. It was a shit, boring, miserable maternity leave for me but she was grand.

I was more worried about DC1's cohort as those toddler years are so important for socialisation. Fortunately nurseries reopened after three months and remained open so she was fine, but obviously not all DC are in childcare and I gather her age group nationally is struggling.

Covid was shit for everyone in different ways, it's not surprising there are consequences.

I was 14 weeks pregnant when we went into lockdown, and baby was born in September. Managed to meet grandparents briefly before we went back into lockdown. The biggest issue for us was that he didn’t have hearing problems picked up because of the lack of appointments, so he didn’t really talk until he was 2 (he’s caught up now though). Lack of immune system meant several hospital admissions with colds/rsv - and the ward was full of similar aged children with similar illnesses. Our paediatrician said that there are lots of viruses like RSV that lockdown has changed the was these viruses spread and they won’t know the full impact of this for some time.

I don’t think it had much to any effect on my DS but then I also had a 3 year old who doesn’t stop talking and i was more worried about the impact on her.
To be honest I’m not sure why it’d effect their speech and language so much; if anything it was more me that struggled with the 2020 winter but I still did lots of winter walks. You could also be in a bubble so we saw one set of family members a lot. Admittedly there weren’t any groups to go to but I didn’t really do those with my first DC either

My lockdown baby was diagnosed with ASD at age 2.5. Still in nappies at just turned 4 and will only be doing half days in reception. We nearly deferred but actually did see a huge benefit to going earlier for the additional support that will be offered in school . I don’t think it’s due to covid/lockdown though as I’m autistic and so are my older dc

My lock down child had delayed speech, getting better but struggles with a lot of pronounciations. But I know many lock down children without issue.

It's quite a small study (200 children) given how many children were born in lockdown, but I don't think it should be dismissed. In fact I'd like to see a larger study. Have a niece born in lockdown and she has speech delay.

From my personal experience lots (if not all) age groups were affected. My 9yo's class (going into Y5, YR when Covid hit) has a very high ratio of kids with "anxiety" (not to mention the anxious and protective parents!!)

The inverted commas aren't to diminish the children who really do suffer with anxiety but more to highlight the prevelance of kids described as having anxiety

My older and younger child (Y2 and a 2yo who went to nursery in 2020) seem to be much less affected but youngest child does have SEN so maybe I don't have a true picture)

The world changed in 2020 for a huge amount of children and adults alike.

It astounds me people actually isolated from their family to begin with !! My kids still saw everyone. Especially during the holidays.

The world changed in 2020 for a huge amount of children and adults alike.

It really did. I work in a university and the covid effect lasted for years as students were arriving at nowhere near the expected level of maturity - unsurprisingly as they'd missed a couple of key years for building independence. We're finally getting past it now.

But people did isolate. People were driven by fear.

Looking back I feel like a fucking idiot for doing so (we started seeing inlaws in their garden again in the May / June but we isolated for a good 10 weeks!)

My mum died suddenly in the September and I'd not seen her for months. It makes my blood boil when I think about that lost time. Time I didn't see my lovely mum.

So sad for all the pregnant mums to be and their babies who died when they caught covid and before they knew how to treat it 😢

I'm sure it's not necessarily a national thing so I'm not trying to generalise too much here. However Covid kids fall in between mine who are 2019 and 2021 born. I was shocked to hear which children out of my youngest pre school were going to be starting reception this year. They seem extremely immature (appreciate 4 years old are anyway) and school implemented a few things I know my eldest didn't do until starting reception. I don't know if that's as a result of the school's Ofsted inspection and they are linking EYFS better or if there is a genuine concern that they are going to struggle with this cohort.

Our incoming reception cohort are incredibly high needs, and the same is being reported by teachers at other local schools.

I thought DD1’s class might be affected (she’s going into Year 1 also at my school next week) but they are a really sociable, independent bunch. I’d have thought they would be very affected, as they would have been young babies/been born during the first lockdown. Maybe they’re an anomaly.

DD2 is 3 and heading into her final preschool year. Most of her peers seem to be fine. Maybe this cohort heralds the end of pandemic affected children?

I’m teaching Year 6 this year and goodness me this class are anxious and immature. They would have been Year 1 during the first lockdown, so I guess they were old enough to experience the uncertainty but not understand it.

How I wish there had been a way for schools to operate as normal during those covid years.

A 4 month old wouldn't be socially interacting anyway.

Good for you. Some of us had to shield for the best part of over a year. We didn't get that luxury of visiting family. My eldest was 11 months old at the time of the first lockdown and we had to make a picture book of family because she forgot who they all were. My husband the 'extremely vulnerable' one worked full time from home for that time, walked laps around our garden for exercise and couldn't answer the door for deliveries. I'd only take our daughter to parks when it was chucking it down with rain to ensure it was empty of other people.

Maybe I'm a little sensitive but your post seems preachy and extremely privileged.

I’m to be convinced it had any effect on DD but maybe we got lucky with timings as she was born in June 2020. We went to socially distanced swimming classes when she was 3 months and met other babies in the local park. She had a severe tongue tie but that was sorted pretty efficiently by the NHS at a few weeks old. She started nursery at 10 months, and bar us queuing at the door for the first year or so, has probably had a similar nursery experience to other children who went before. I’m more concerned about her being summer born and the effect on schooling than I am about any knock on effects of various lockdowns.

Yes I run a small SEND school and we've had an eye watering amount of applications this year (around 140 for 6 places) most of them seem to be children about to go into year 2 so born in 2018.

I think it has affected different groups in different ways.
The children who missed a lot of foundation stage are also noticeably lacking in social skills.

Babies born in 2020 would have been so tiny and not at the socialising with other children stage so I can’t see how it would have affected them as they all still had their primary caregivers with them and that’s where babies learn from in the first year. Parallel play and then actual play doesn’t even come till much later so they won’t have missed out on socialising . Experiences from baby sensory are a solitary thing or they look to their parent and you can easily recreate those things at home eg bubbles , textures etc.

Maybe there’s an element of all the adults were stressed? Did these babies pick up on that? By the time they were nursery age things were reopened again. I’d have thought it would have been much worse for children born in 2017/18/19 actually .

Yes I agree. We were all healthy thankfully in our house, but one side had grandparents that were hitting 80 and understandably cautious, and the other had a grandparent who was in very poor health and died in January 2021. They also don't live close enough to pop around and visit in the garden. No regrets here, although it was a difficult time that doesn't mean it wasn't necessary.

Our DGS was born in May 20. His DPs were so afraid of COVID that no-one was allowed within 2m of him for the first year of his life, which has definitely affected that early bond.

He is off to Reception in two days, but only PT. He is not yet reliably toilet trained and spoke directly to me for the first time only on Friday. He did not integrate at nursery and I have no idea how he will cope at school.