Wiggle Talk - A Podcast For Parents · The Wiggles & iHeart Australia

Kids After COVID: What Parents Need to Know with Dr Norman Swan

·44 min·2 clips

Norman Swan describes parenting as a game of tennis, where how a parent returns the child's serve shapes the exchange.

1. Wiggle Talk, a podcast for parents from The Wiggles, examines what has changed for children since 2020, covering infections, food, screens and behaviour. 2. Hosts Simon Price and Lockie Gillespie interview Dr Norman Swan, a doctor and health journalist who presents ABC Radio National's The Health Report and wrote a book on children aged 0 to 10. 3. Swan says the episode is about what is normal and what warrants worry, starting with his observation that there was no COVID spike over last Christmas, which he reads as a sign the virus is "settling down." 4. He explains that COVID-era isolation lowered viral infections and opened space for strep and mycoplasma, which come in waves, while noting COVID can still cause long COVID in some children and that parents can ask a GP about immunisation. 5. He cites a Danish study of 640 children followed from birth to age 10, where the average child had 16 infections in three years and those with 27 infections had roughly three times the later risk of serious infection, an increase of about 8 to 10%. 6. On fevers, he says "parents are always right," advises prompt review for fevers around 38.5 or above 39, and tells of his granddaughter in Singapore whose newborn fever was diagnosed as viral meningitis. 7. On allergies, he argues that Australia's delay to solids at six months and tiny-exposure approach contributed to peanut allergy, and recommends introducing peanut, egg and fish from about four to six months, with farm animals and pets also linked to lower asthma and eczema. 8. He criticises toddler milks as sweetened, calorie-concentrated ultra-processed products, says 70% of supermarket toddler foods do not meet nutritional guidelines, and links ultra-processed food in early life to bowel cancer in 30- and 40-year-olds. 9. On screens, he says iPad use at age three predicts confrontational behaviour at four, advises against using a tablet as a "pacifier," and describes parenting as a game of tennis where a calm return of serve de-escalates a child. 10. Parents of toddlers and primary-school children wanting evidence-based guidance will find this useful.

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