Talking on today’s podcast about a new study I came across JAMA Pediatrics, called “Screen Use and Children’s Language Development From Ages 5 to 7 Years.”
Researchers followed 747 children and measured screens on both sides of the couch (kids and their parents!)
The kid half went how you’d expect. Children who owned a digital device at ages 4 to 5 scored 5.13 points lower in receptive vocabulary and 4.56 points lower in grammar than children who didn’t. More hours, more of a problem. None of us are shocked.
Here’s the part I didn’t expect.
Each additional hour per day of the parent’s smartphone use was associated with 0.42 fewer points of annual growth in that child’s receptive vocabulary.
It’s an observational study, so it shows association and not causation, but the mechanism isn’t a mystery. We already know that more parent phone use means fewer back-and-forth exchanges, less attunement, and fewer words spoken to the child.
Your kid tries to get your attention and doesn’t get it, so eventually they stop trying. Or they do something worth noticing and you’re mid-scroll, so nobody says “wow, look what you did.” That happens to all of us. It isn’t the end of the world. It is something we can get a handle on.
Track your pickups.
Open your screen time settings, switch the view to weekly average, and scroll down to daily pickups. Hours tell you how long you were away. Pickups tell you how many times you mentally left the room.
Mine has been running around 88 a day. Last week 88, the week before 85, the week before that 88. This week I’m at 57, but the week is young!
Two things make it easier:
Turn off your notifications, essentially all of them; we let texts from family through and we don’t miss anything. And keep your phone off your body. In your pocket, you’ll check it walking up the stairs. On the kitchen island, you have to decide to go get it.
Then pick a 10% target. I’m at 88, so I’m going for 8 fewer pickups a day. Eight times where I just... don’t.
Go comment on this post with your number. Twenty is fine. Four hundred is fine. It’s just where you’re starting.
RSV season, and an antibiotic side benefit
A new study in Clinical Infectious Diseases looked at over 15000 infants and asked whether preventing RSV also prevents antibiotics. It does: 14.4% less antibiotic prescribing for outpatient respiratory infections, 40.3% for bronchiolitis, and 69.4% for kids hospitalized with RSV.
In the episode, I walk through what nirsevimab actually is (it’s a monoclonal antibody, not a vaccine, and that distinction changes how it works and how it feels), and why I bring it up now rather than in December.
“What can I do at home for croup?”
A parent wrote in asking whether she needs a prescription nebulizer on hand before croup season. Short answer, no. In the episode I go through what actually helps at 9pm (nasal saline, ibuprofen, cool night air, a steamy shower, honey if they’re over 12 months), the two signs that mean go in tonight, and why the dexamethasone your office reaches for should almost always go in the mouth instead of the leg.
A few weeks ago I saw a kid who'd been sleeping restlessly, distracted at school and (GET THIS!) chewing ice constantly....not something I usually ask about, but his mom mentioned it without prompting. We checked ferritin….it was 7.
A few months into treatment, the ice-chewing just stopped...sleep is better, and focus is improving at home and school.Ice chewing is often called pica or pagophagia and it's one of the stranger signs of iron deficiency....right alongside sleep trouble, restlessness, and trouble focusing If a ferritin check has come back low, the plan usually starts with supplementing — but only if your kid will actually take it. This is where most families get stuck: a lot of iron supplements taste bad enough that kids spit them out, skip doses, or the bottle just ends up abandoned in the back of a cabinet. I've been trying
NovaFerrum's YAY with families lately — no added sugar, no artificial sweeteners, and one of the few kids' iron supplements that's actually been through a published clinical trial. In that trial, kids on this formulation successfully took their dose 94% of the time versus 82% for a standard iron regimen.
.
The screen study, JAMA Pediatrics, August 2026 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2852943
The nirsevimab study, Clinical Infectious Diseases, August 2026 https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciag406/8750980
O.D.D. Is B.S.
·
Jul 21
Note: I’ve been nervous to share this opinion. Honestly, I rewrote my Instagram carousel and this post so many times to get the words just right….and then i had all these messages come in that told me on I’m on the right track despite going against the DSM dogma….
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.