When social interaction came to a halt during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, newborn babies missed out on vital communication milestones, researchers say.
A new Irish study found about 25 percent of these new babies spent a year without ever meeting a child their own age. Incidental interactions with strangers and community members at grocery stores or play groups didn’t happen. They rarely had a chance to wave “bye-bye.”
But it’s not a cause for parents to worry, cautioned lead study author Dr. Susan Byrne, a senior lecturer in pediatrics and child health at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland….