Mental health and development in babies can cause tremendous worry, especially in this age of 24-hour social media comparison. As Unii’s top paediatrician Dr. Su Laurent, points out in the new episode of the Unii Babies podcast with Dr. Saranya, it’s often best to simply wait and enjoy your time with your baby. “I've noticed recently quite a number of parents coming to me with a baby saying things like, I don't think my baby's pointing or I don't think that they recognise their own name. And what they're really saying to me is, is my baby autistic? And that's sometimes what I'll ask them. 'Is that what you're worried about'?"

“I think there's quite a lot out on the Internet at the moment about autism. And what I would say to most parents is that worries like that are very often unfounded. And what we have to do is just wait and watch and see what happens. But going in early with a diagnosis like that is very rarely helpful.”

“And I think that's something that we [paediatricians] try to do in our roles—to dispel some of those [online myths] and to try and reassure parents and give them the right places to seek information that doesn't include any of those scary things that are out there.”

Dr. Su advises that knowing your child as an individual should be your top priority.

“I think the other thing that's really important is that obviously there will be some babies who are going to turn out to be autistic or to have developmental delay, but it's very rarely important to rush in and make a diagnosis. It's often much better to get to know that baby, to follow that baby, and see how things turn out.”

Check out Dr. Su’s Baby Development Journey with Unii for more advice on nurturing your child’s healthy development.

And don’t forget to tune in for a new episode of Unii Babies with Dr. Saranya Ravindran every Friday.

Unii Babies is created and owned by London-based family wellbeing educational platform Unii.com, which offers hundreds of episodes of expert-led video courses and a library of medically reviewed articles devoted to improving both baby and child health and your parenting journey. We can also have your parenting questions expertly answered. Contact us with what you want to know, and you may see one of our experts discuss it on our podcast or Unii.com: Because Family Matters.

This podcast is for reference and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice and should not be relied upon as such. Specific medical advice about your specific circumstances should always be sought separately before taking or deciding not to take any action.

Unii’s Baby Development Expert Dr. Su: Worries about autism in babies are often unfounded.

Unii’s Baby Development Expert Dr. Su: Worries about autism in babies are often unfounded.