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Best Beginnings is the podcast for everyone working in or caring about the early years. Hosted by George Looker, CEO of Babyzone, each episode brings together leading researchers, clinicians, practitioners, policymakers and parents to explore the evidence, ideas and innovations shaping how we support children and families in the UK.
From infant mental health and attachment to workforce challenges and systems change, Best Beginnings goes beyond the headlines to have the conversations that matter most in early childhood.
New episodes drop every Tuesday.
Best Beginnings is brought to you by Babyzone, a national charity operating free, evidence-based family hubs across England for families with children aged 0–5.
00:00:00:03 - 00:00:02:16
Unknown
toddlers walking into my clinic room.
00:00:02:16 - 00:00:04:20
Unknown
with a glazed look on their faces,
00:00:04:20 - 00:00:12:17
Unknown
and they are drawn immediately to inanimate objects in the room, and they almost walk past you like you're not sitting in the chair.
00:00:12:20 - 00:00:29:14
Unknown
Homo sapiens have been around for God knows how many 60, 700,000 years smartphones and devices have been around for 20 years. Children have been brought up very, very successfully for nearly 100,000 years. You know, I rest my case
00:00:29:16 - 00:00:54:18
Unknown
Welcome to Best Beginnings podcast from Baby Zone, where we talk to the people working hardest to give every child the best possible start in life. My guest today is a consultant pediatrician who spent his career at the sharp end of children's health. From life saving heart surgery to a global foundation that sends medics around the world to operate on children who would otherwise have no chance.
00:00:54:20 - 00:01:20:16
Unknown
But he's here today to talk about something he believes is harming a generation of young people in plain sight, what he calls the screen Demick. Doctor Sanjeev is the author of Movement is Medicine, and he makes a striking argument that there's an evolutionary reason that the young brain is so defenseless against smartphones and social media, and that physical activity might be one of the most powerful antidotes that we have.
00:01:20:21 - 00:01:41:12
Unknown
And he arrives at a remarkable moment. In the last few months, the government has published its first ever screen time guidance for under fives, and it's announced it will ban social media for under 16 altogether. Policies Sanjeev has been campaigning for for years in clinics, in classrooms and on the airwaves. He was an expert witness in early childhood.
00:01:41:13 - 00:01:42:24
Unknown
For channel four swiped
00:01:43:03 - 00:01:53:11
Unknown
joined us recently for a webinar on Screen Time. I'm delighted that he's back to go deeper this time, talking about the very youngest children. Sanjeev, welcome to Best Beginnings.
00:01:53:17 - 00:01:55:07
Unknown
Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
00:01:55:07 - 00:02:06:02
Unknown
And I've spoken about a lot of the work that you've been doing. You've had an extraordinary career from a heart surgery, looking at a global foundation that operates on children around the world.
00:02:06:03 - 00:02:13:11
Unknown
What led a pediatric intensive list to start sounding the alarm about screen time and the developing brain?
00:02:13:13 - 00:02:25:20
Unknown
Yeah, that's a really good question. A lot of people ask me the same thing. In fact, just this morning I gave a lecture to registrars who know me as a pediatric intensive. In other words, I look after critically ill children. The ICU said, why are you talking about screen time?
00:02:25:20 - 00:02:54:00
Unknown
And essentially, when I started as a pediatric intensive consulting the care of critically ill children 30 years ago now literally, I decided I needed a needed an additional interest because you need to also interact with children who don't have such life threatening illnesses. And I developed an interest in skin dermatology, pediatric dermatology. And if you ask most doctors, it's not their fault.
00:02:54:00 - 00:03:16:17
Unknown
But if you ask most doctors what is the particular skin rash on a child, they have absolutely no idea. So I thought to myself, I need to learn more about skin. So I was trained by a very good adult dermatologist for a few years, and ever since then I've been doing my own clinics, which means essentially in each clinic, which is a few times a week, I see 10 or 15 children with skin problems and other problems as well.
00:03:16:17 - 00:03:26:08
Unknown
And in the last 3 or 4 years, what I started noticing was a few things. First of all, non-verbal children. And what I mean by that is
00:03:26:11 - 00:03:34:08
Unknown
toddlers walking into my clinic room. Normal mobility, normal coordination. They walk in with a glazed look on their faces,
00:03:34:10 - 00:03:42:07
Unknown
and they are drawn immediately to inanimate objects in the room, and they almost walk past you like you're not sitting in the chair.
00:03:42:10 - 00:04:05:15
Unknown
And a lot of these, when you delve deeper into what goes on at home, etc., I've discovered that they're spending most of their waking hours on screens, as are their parents. Now, now, we must say at the outset, parenting is very, very difficult. And this is symptomatic of the fact that people didn't know what hounds were causing, which we do now.
00:04:05:17 - 00:04:32:07
Unknown
So going back to these case studies of case scenarios, essentially what was happening is, you know, sitting in front of a device or a screen, particularly in early childhood, is a passive process. The sounds, there's colors, there's lights, etc., but you can only learn vocabulary. We all have only learned vocabulary by listening to words from parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, and the environment and causing those children and many of those children not all.
00:04:32:08 - 00:04:48:18
Unknown
There are other reasons for being non-verbal. They were not. The language center in the left side of the brain was not stimulated by vocabulary, by words, by interacting with the environment, but was actually they were in front of screens. They didn't develop the language and vocabulary.
00:04:48:22 - 00:04:56:06
Unknown
So, I mean, obviously that story that you just told really is kind of a visceral kind of.
00:04:56:08 - 00:05:12:22
Unknown
What did you find when you asked those parents about the children and the life they were living at home? What was the reaction when you started to talk to them about, you know, screens or talk to them about the home environment and the impact it was having on their children?
00:05:12:24 - 00:05:24:08
Unknown
Some of them were just completely oblivious and were stunned when I gave them a simple explanation as to how children develop language, and also very apologetic.
00:05:24:10 - 00:05:31:16
Unknown
Some of them didn't take it so well, and I've developed a technique when I talk about technology use, and I always ask permission,
00:05:31:16 - 00:05:47:09
Unknown
but the majority were actually very interested in what I had to say because they hadn't realized. And it's no fault again. Parenting is very difficult, and it's only in the last three years that science has really progressed in telling us about brain changes.
00:05:47:09 - 00:06:11:02
Unknown
So now that we know what the harm is being caused, now is the time to act. So in clinics when I give them advice and as you know in life, it's how you say something to people. And if you say it in the right way and they know you have the child's best interest at heart, they usually take it well and they realize, actually, we have been doing this.
00:06:11:02 - 00:06:22:20
Unknown
The grandparent has been because parents have been at work, etc., etc. difficult circumstances, and then they modify the behavior at home slowly but surely. And then the change is remarkable.
00:06:22:22 - 00:06:33:11
Unknown
I'd love to dive deep into the science that you spoke about, and the sort of you've written extensively about how the young brain is defenseless against these technologies.
00:06:33:12 - 00:06:42:04
Unknown
And you walk us through that. What does it mean? The idea that the emotional and reward systems are developing before your ability to put the brakes on it away?
00:06:42:08 - 00:07:05:11
Unknown
Yeah, this is something that I've also learned myself to greater degree in the last few months, because I've been stunned as to how social media devices, smartphones, and intrigued as to what they do. So essentially in mammals, we have, let's just call it an emotional and reward system.
00:07:05:12 - 00:07:37:18
Unknown
It's called the limbic system scientifically. So the emotional reward system is embedded deep in our brains. Its present in all mammals okay. And it equips all mammals, including humans, with the ability to withstand injury, insult with the ability to bond, give rewards, helps to a degree with social cohesion. But more importantly, it's important for survival. It's critical for survival.
00:07:37:20 - 00:08:02:04
Unknown
The other part of the brain, which differentiates us from animals significantly, all those animals are quite intelligent. But the the, the fine thinking, the finesse of thought, the moral judgment, all those sorts of things which in which human beings are different, those functions are based in the prefrontal cortex.
00:08:02:06 - 00:08:13:16
Unknown
So the survival part of the brain, the emotional reward circuitry, because of its crucial, essential nature of keeping us alive as a species, it's very active early on.
00:08:13:18 - 00:08:38:09
Unknown
It's like a Lamborghini with a lot of speed. But the braking system, which the prefrontal cortex is faulty because it hasn't developed yet. The prefrontal cortex is the center for emotional regulation. It tells us what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior. It is responsible for how we all conduct ourselves as we mean. You are sitting and having a chat in a moderate, central, proportionate manner.
00:08:38:11 - 00:08:43:09
Unknown
That's your prefrontal cortex making me talk the way I am. And you listen to me politely
00:08:43:11 - 00:09:09:03
Unknown
in the first 2025 years of life. That is immature. So the braking system is running behind the accelerator in the emotional reward circuitry. Therefore, that is very prone to addictive algorithms, to dopamine hits. And because the center for Motion Regulation is not able to control it, it gets literally out of hand and hyperactive.
00:09:09:08 - 00:09:30:08
Unknown
I think that sports car analogy is a really powerful one. I guess, you know, as a parent myself, with a five year old, two and a half year old and an eight month old, what would I what would you say to me in terms of understanding that engine when it's revving and kind of accelerating, and then how to make sure you're regulating it, keeping it calm?
00:09:30:08 - 00:09:37:18
Unknown
And how do you lay that groundwork, I guess, before it's too late with your child grows up to be a teenager that's still regulating these things.
00:09:37:22 - 00:09:51:05
Unknown
The first thing you have to do is leave by example. And I'm sure you've seen and this is one of the other things that got me really alarmed about the grip of smartphones on not just children and young people at human beings.
00:09:51:07 - 00:10:14:24
Unknown
And you see adults walking around with their heads buried in a phone form, so-called forms. And I think to myself, as you know, you know, we all are very busy. We all do lots of things in our lives. Nobody is that busy that you can't stop somewhere and just pause and read whatever you want to read. It's symptomatic of the fact that these are very addictive algorithms, even for adults.
00:10:14:24 - 00:10:43:14
Unknown
So adults have to lead by example because adults are the role models to their kids. They have to lead by example. They have to explain the use of if they're using smartphones, devices, etc. they have to explain to their children why they are using them. So therefore, when they say no to their children, they will the children will understand this is possibly being used for work or for to communicate with somebody quite important, some important communication.
00:10:43:14 - 00:11:07:22
Unknown
So they need to a lead by example be explained why they're using it and by leading by example set out parameters for the children. And then there's no guidance. I created a five day infographic which is a guide for parents, carers and families as to how much screen time is appropriate. Screen time is reasonable screen time. So follow the guidance that the government has now come up with, albeit belatedly.
00:11:07:24 - 00:11:32:07
Unknown
But it's out there now and also get the children involved. You've already mentioned this in physical activity, going out for a walk, whatever the weather, nature, sunlight, physical activity, getting the children involved as they grow older, more involved at home, talk to them, involve them in discussions and how decisions and how it's etc. etc. so there's lots of things that can be done which are very simple,
00:11:32:09 - 00:11:46:08
Unknown
very simple, and it's also part of the magic that I see when I go to a baby zone is you see the parent child bonding and you're doing a baby massage class or little kickers class and you're running around and there's no smartphones, there's no interruption.
00:11:46:08 - 00:11:53:22
Unknown
You see a smile being returned, you see giggles, you see laughter. You see a parent and child getting to know each other better.
00:11:53:24 - 00:12:18:15
Unknown
yet these things are almost designed to get in the way. And I guess there's also a lot of responsibility on the app manufacturers and the the big technology giants as well. Where do you see responsibility lying for them when they're designing things that are trying to hit the brain's sensory reward system, the endless scrolling notifications that come through?
00:12:18:16 - 00:12:23:02
Unknown
How do you consider them as part of the ecosystem?
00:12:23:04 - 00:12:24:11
Unknown
00:12:24:13 - 00:12:51:13
Unknown
I'll give you the honest answer. In my opinion, they're obviously rich and morally bankrupt because they know exactly. You sure you've read lots of accounts of emails from internal emails from within. These companies don't know exactly what they're doing to children. They're only, from what we can see that only interested in the bottom right hand corner. And that is profit and that is and snaring children and young people and adults.
00:12:51:13 - 00:13:19:08
Unknown
And that to me is really, really sad. You know, part of this debate about the social media ban is why are we penalizing children? We're not penalizing children. We protecting children. Why aren't we trying to do something with tech companies? Well, good luck with that. They're not interested in what you have to say. The only in my opinion, again, the only way they will take sit up and take notice is, is when they get hit with more and more expensive lawsuits costing them millions of dollars in pounds, and that's when they will change their behavior.
00:13:19:09 - 00:13:20:16
Unknown
They're not interested otherwise.
00:13:20:16 - 00:13:24:24
Unknown
And I think it's obviously the government has talked about the social media ban
00:13:24:24 - 00:13:42:21
Unknown
And I wonder, you know, as we try and support parents, we all know you said early parents want the best for their child. Ultimately, whether it's through a position they don't have, the the awareness or understanding of the impact it's having or they've got nothing else they think they can turn to.
00:13:42:22 - 00:14:23:20
Unknown
So giving them few tips, few guides, few opportunities to do more things. And I love the what you spoke about in terms of movement and trying to get out and being active, I guess. What would you like to see being offered for parents offered for families that we don't currently do? Perhaps some of the families that you see in the hospitals, in your clinics that are presenting with some of these challenges that you described, how can we help them kind of make sure this isn't a fixed challenge, that we can reduce the instances of non-verbal, perhaps being presented, and where your own view as a clinician, what should we be doing more as a nation
00:14:23:20 - 00:14:24:24
Unknown
to try and help those families?
00:14:25:04 - 00:14:45:13
Unknown
I think first of all, public awareness campaign education, education, education, and that's what we need. We've already discussed the fact that this is nobody's fault, apart from, in my opinion, the big tech companies, because what they've done is cynical, but it's not Joe and Jill public's fault. It's not the parent fault.
00:14:45:14 - 00:15:21:06
Unknown
We've all been trapped in this perfect storm. We didn't know the side effects. So we need to talk about what it does to the brain. We need to also discuss as as we have evolution and how actually they are. They are very children, and young people are very easy targets from an evolutionary standpoint. And the government, the Chief Medical officer, the Royal College, etc. need to alert people, educate people as to what smartphones are and devices are doing, and espouse physical activity,
00:15:21:09 - 00:15:31:22
Unknown
and the specific aspect of physical activity which I would dearly like to be broadcast far and wide, is the fact that physical activity is as good for the brain as it
00:15:31:22 - 00:16:04:01
Unknown
is for the body. And what do I mean by that? Consistent regular physical activity helps exactly the same emotional circuitry we were talking about. So it helps the prefrontal cortex the center of emotion regulation. It calms the limbic system down. Now people have heard of dopamine hits and dopamine rush and serotonin abnormality and high stress levels. These are common factors in a wide variety of mental health difficulties, including ADHD and including autism spectrum disorder.
00:16:04:06 - 00:16:29:19
Unknown
Well guess what? Regular, consistent physical activity normalizes rebalances the dopamine. There was the serotonin levels. And that's the sort of public health message that needs to be sent out. And by the way, do we know if we delve into how drugs work for ADHD, for depression, for other mental health illnesses? Well, they work by rebalancing dopamine and serotonin, exactly the same thing that physical activity does.
00:16:29:20 - 00:16:55:04
Unknown
So these are very simple messages that we need to disseminate through baby zone, through all the other channels and avenues we have. So parents have an additional incentive to get their kids active. It doesn't have to be exotic. It doesn't have to be expensive. It has to be a regular and consistent. And if the if they knew a physical activity causes growth of rain cells, it normalizes dopamine, reduces stress levels, normalizes serotonin.
00:16:55:04 - 00:16:57:07
Unknown
I'm sure they'll make a huge effort.
00:16:57:09 - 00:17:21:19
Unknown
So for a parent, you know, I think most parents will have been through a scenario where a child is throwing a tantrum. They're not happy. They're screaming there, you're exhausted. There existed your hot. What would you say to the parent in that moment where oftentimes they reach for Bluey or YouTube or a short kind of video to try and calm that child down?
00:17:21:20 - 00:17:32:12
Unknown
What actually would you see as a more effective response, or do you think, are there some instances where it's appropriate to try and use technology to support
00:17:32:16 - 00:17:56:02
Unknown
well, against the backdrop that what you've described? And that's a real live situation every day in millions of households? I can only advise parents that if you are certain that you're going to use Bluey, whatever it might be, for a very brief period of time, and it's not going to become habit, then you know your child best.
00:17:56:03 - 00:18:21:22
Unknown
However, if you allow it to become a habit, then breaking that habit is going to be much more difficult, and it's going to cause much more stress and trauma than disciplining your child at that point in time. Now I give lots of lectures to parents, and when I present them with the evidence and lots of scientific studies I talk about, some of them are in despair and I say, you have a choice.
00:18:21:22 - 00:18:46:09
Unknown
Now, given how your child spends hours and hours on smartphones and social media, which equates to an addiction, you have a choice. Fight a difficult battle now, or you allow this to proliferate, to fester and affect your child's future chances. And that's a decision for you to make.
00:18:46:11 - 00:18:53:00
Unknown
And there's a long term impact there, isn't there? And there's sort of a societal level, but also at a family household level.
00:18:53:02 - 00:19:14:00
Unknown
And that's where that intervention is key. And I guess we touched on the government's guidance for screen time for under-fives, which broadly says just video calls, perhaps with family under the age of two and and no more than an hour for two to fives watching kind of slow paced content, trying to avoid screens between mealtime and bedtime as well.
00:19:14:02 - 00:19:25:05
Unknown
I guess for a parent of a toddler, you know, that's now the official government line. Do you think that we get it right, or do you think actually, even still, an hour a day can let too much in?
00:19:25:07 - 00:19:39:00
Unknown
I personally think an hour a day is too much. My my infographic says 30 minutes because there is evidence that an hour a day and more starts to affect again.
00:19:39:00 - 00:19:46:07
Unknown
Language cause emotional dysregulation, lead to temper tantrums. You know
00:19:46:09 - 00:20:00:22
Unknown
Homo sapiens have been around for God knows how many 60, 700,000 years smartphones and devices have been around for 20 years. Children have been brought up very, very successfully for nearly 100,000 years. You know, I rest my case
00:20:01:00 - 00:20:03:21
Unknown
and let's go to your book again, because we've spoken about it.
00:20:03:21 - 00:20:25:02
Unknown
We touched about kind of movement as medicine and the claim that physical activity can reverse some of these trends and brain changes that we've spoken about, I guess. What else can parents be doing, but also education system schools? What would you like to be seeing in PE lessons, or even in early education in nurseries and childminder sort of sessions?
00:20:25:03 - 00:20:32:21
Unknown
What do you think we should be trying to encourage more of, or supporting early years leaders and schools to be doing
00:20:32:24 - 00:20:51:07
Unknown
well, simple things like walking to school if possible, or if you have to drive, parking the car a certain distance away from school and walking in. Even that is shown, particularly in neurodivergent children, to actually rebalance dopamine, increase serotonin, and they're calmer when they are in class.
00:20:51:07 - 00:21:12:11
Unknown
So simple things like that incorporate even when you go to the supermarket, park a little distance away from the door and walk in, incorporate walking, going to the park. There are 8 million families in this country, at least with dogs or other pets, which are whichever pets can be walked, they should be taken out for a walk. Go to the park.
00:21:12:15 - 00:21:44:02
Unknown
One famous American psychologist said there's no such thing as bad weather, just inadequate clothes. Up to a point, of course. And currently this is not bad weather. This is great, but that's why I'm concerned. So. And again, it gives so much satisfaction to interact with your child, go out, do things together at home, just a bit of a discourse session, you know, put the music on and everybody have a little dance.
00:21:44:02 - 00:21:54:03
Unknown
And youngsters would love that. Go to the park and look for something. Find something which is not evidently visible. Lots of things. A water fight in the garden.
00:21:54:05 - 00:22:09:11
Unknown
That's my thing, because again, we work with a lot of families that are experiencing acute poverty and, you know, real struggle in terms of where they don't have the finances to go and sign up to classes, perhaps, or, you know, get a gym membership.
00:22:09:12 - 00:22:17:04
Unknown
Even those things are not necessarily within everyone's reach, but there are things you can do at home, in the playground, in a park,
00:22:17:10 - 00:22:23:08
Unknown
riding a bike, for instance. You know, these these are accessible to pretty much everybody.
00:22:23:10 - 00:22:29:03
Unknown
Yeah. And I think that's the piece that we try and do, is to make sure you feel part of a community of others.
00:22:29:04 - 00:22:50:17
Unknown
There's a social proof, I guess, of seeing others doing it and being part of a group. That's really important. I'd love to pivot slightly and talk about healing little hearts. Obviously, you founded a charity that sends medical teams around the world to perform heart surgery on children that would have otherwise not had that. What made that begin for you?
00:22:50:17 - 00:22:52:19
Unknown
Where did that begin for you?
00:22:52:21 - 00:23:19:11
Unknown
So I grew up in Bombay, although I left the country 40 years ago now, and during my early training in Bombay, even though everybody knows it's the financial capital of India. So for all intents and purposes, modern city, a bustling city at that time, there was very surprisingly, very inadequate and very poor provision for heart surgery for children.
00:23:19:12 - 00:23:44:08
Unknown
So when I was on duty, I would see children come into A&E and with heart defects and a the diagnosis wasn't made properly. B if they were rushed to surgery in an act of desperation, more often than not they did not survive. So in other words, I witnessed in India a huge paucity of of children's heart care because it's not cheap.
00:23:44:10 - 00:24:11:10
Unknown
And sometime during my practice said I've been a consultant 30 years, about 10 or 13 years ago I thought to myself my NHS practices going well. The intensive care units were running really well. I need to focus on doing other things and start giving back. And because of my experience during my formative training years, straight away the idea came to me and I picked up the telephone to a renowned hospital in Bombay and I said, this is who I am.
00:24:11:10 - 00:24:20:12
Unknown
I can bring a team of heart surgeons, intensive, etc. and we can come to your hospital and operate on children for free and they grab both hands. And that's how it started
00:24:20:14 - 00:24:31:09
Unknown
Just amazing and remarkable impact you're having. And I guess there are so many children around the world that have treatable heart conditions, but it's still a death sentence, potentially because of where they're born.
00:24:31:15 - 00:24:40:13
Unknown
Why does that gap still exist? When the technology is available, the expertise is there. And what gives you hope that you might be able to close it?
00:24:40:15 - 00:25:04:03
Unknown
That's a really, really good question. So there are a few things. First of all, when I started in the early 90s, if you look at the statistics from Africa and other developing countries, the highest cause of mortality amongst children at that time was infection.
00:25:04:05 - 00:25:35:11
Unknown
There has been considerable, albeit not enough, socio economic progress in Africa and South America, Asia, etc. so as a result of the socio economic process, deaths in childhood from infections plummeted. That therefore meant that people started setting up and taking notice about the deaths from treatable heart conditions like congenital heart disease, children born with holes in the heart, etc. so that started getting more attention.
00:25:35:11 - 00:26:12:08
Unknown
However, you know, like in the UK, we spent about 10 or 11% of our GDP on the health service. Other countries can't afford that. That is why it has taken so long. They don't have the will. They don't have the desire. They're very fatalistic, but slowly and surely that is changing. There has been a sea change. There is awareness and and also the awareness that many of these heart defects, once they are corrected with relatively simple heart surgery, these children are set up for life because if they're not operated, the morbidity, the chronic illness actually also costing a lot of money.
00:26:12:08 - 00:26:40:24
Unknown
So that has raised the awareness there. More and more people who are interested in Asia, Africa, etc. and there are more doctors who want to train this. So a lot of factors have now mixed together to to create a sort of movement across the world. And what Healing Little Hearts does is we go to a few, a small number, 4 or 5 hospitals multiple times a year.
00:26:41:01 - 00:27:02:02
Unknown
And the rationale behind that is we train and empower them to become self-sufficient. So in addition to our global travels, we've done nearly 300 missions and operated on 4000 children on our travels. We've also opened a heart center in India that is operated on 5000 children. So when we are not there, they're operating. And that's what gives me hope.
00:27:02:02 - 00:27:15:23
Unknown
And that's the model that will get us out of this really awful situation where there's not enough heart surgery, because local teams will be trained and empowered in the fullness of time to do the work themselves.
00:27:16:00 - 00:27:27:04
Unknown
Yeah. That's amazing. I guess, but no listening that's moved by this or wants to help, whether that's with healing little hearts or children's health more broadly, what's the most useful thing that they can do?
00:27:27:06 - 00:27:58:15
Unknown
Help raise the awareness. And one simple but shocking statistic crystallizes the the what I call a global child health scandal in the 21st century, when technology is advancing and obscene levels and obscene rates. And that is even in the 21st century, there are million children dying from untreated heart disease. And I have to stress that most of 80% of these children have easily correctable heart disease.
00:27:58:21 - 00:28:16:15
Unknown
Heart problems literally holds between receiving chambers in the heart or pumping chambers, which can be closed with some artificial patch of material. So raising the awareness because there's a huge amount of work to do, we are making progress, but we're literally just at the base camp of Everest, going up slowly.
00:28:16:21 - 00:28:28:06
Unknown
Yeah, I think there's there's lots that needs to be done in terms of raising awareness and continuing to talk about it and campaign and make sure that we are aware of this disparity.
00:28:28:07 - 00:28:37:12
Unknown
But it sounds great that there seems to be some coalescing of minds and people. And obviously, thank you for the work that you've done and bringing all of that together.
00:28:37:12 - 00:28:52:18
Unknown
because we used to merge into a bit of a quick fire round, I guess it doesn't have to be too quick, but one word that you have for what a screen takes away for a child, connection to a connection.
00:28:52:18 - 00:28:57:17
Unknown
And and the biggest myth that you've come across around screen time and babies and young children
00:28:57:20 - 00:29:00:21
Unknown
that it's good for connection at least to disconnection.
00:29:00:23 - 00:29:06:08
Unknown
And what's your own favorite way to move? You speak about moving a lot. What's your favorite way to
00:29:06:10 - 00:29:29:01
Unknown
I do a few things. I'm a 50 year old, a 50 year not old, 50 year practitioner of karate, shotgun, karate. So I'm a 50 degree black belt in karate. I go to the gym a couple of 2 or 3 times a week, and I love running upstairs, so I won't walk upstairs. I'll never take the lift, be it at the airport, be it at the tube station.
00:29:29:01 - 00:29:31:02
Unknown
I'll run upstairs. And that's really helped me.
00:29:31:02 - 00:29:35:06
Unknown
Wow. And is there one patient that stuck with you all of these years?
00:29:35:07 - 00:29:44:14
Unknown
A moment that either as part of the clinic that we were describing earlier or your earlier work, that really is kind of cemented the impact that you've had.
00:29:44:16 - 00:29:49:04
Unknown
There was, in fact, a young lady who we met in this heart center.
00:29:49:04 - 00:30:15:03
Unknown
We opened in southeast of India. She had been to a multitude of doctors. She had, I think, in her early 20s, been to a multitude of doctors, and she was told she can't have children and she's going to die early. And we assessed her. And our healing little heart surgeon said, that's a lot of nonsense. We're going to set her up for life.
00:30:15:05 - 00:30:37:20
Unknown
And he operated on her successfully and she was set up for life. She's got a family now. She's thriving. You know, there was another child. I know you asked me for one example who traveled 36 hours to come and come for heart surgery. He was extremely sick. We had to use a very sophisticated technique called ECMO, which hadn't been done in this hospital before in India.
00:30:37:22 - 00:30:51:21
Unknown
He survived. He thrived. So a few months later, he traveled another 36 hours just to come back and see us. So there's those sorts of things which are embedded in my memory and in numerous examples. Take me all day to go through them.
00:30:51:23 - 00:30:56:04
Unknown
Enormous impact, very powerful.
00:30:56:06 - 00:31:22:12
Unknown
What I'm taking from this conversation is the vulnerability that Sanjeev describes. It isn't a flaw in our children. It's the very thing that makes them human. That hunger for novelty, for connection, for reward is what helped us survive as a species. The problem isn't the child, the parent. The problem is that we've handed that beautiful, defenseless wiring over to technologies built specifically to exploit
00:31:22:14 - 00:31:33:22
Unknown
what stays with me is the hope in what Sanjeev said, that the brain is plastic, that movement can heal and that it's never too late. Crucially, it's never too early to start
00:31:33:24 - 00:31:43:23
Unknown
at baby's Own. We see it every day. Children who light up not in front of a screen, but in front of their parent or carer. Moving, playing, being met and bonding.
00:31:44:03 - 00:31:47:13
Unknown
It's not a small thing. That might be the whole thing. Their whole world.
00:31:47:17 - 00:32:04:20
Unknown
So if you remember one thing, the antidote isn't the to the screen isn't another device or a clever app. It's the oldest medicine. There is movement, play, and a human connection with with someone that's fully present. That child's brain was built for that long before it was built for anything else.
00:32:04:22 - 00:32:21:23
Unknown
Sanjeev, thank you so much for joining me, and thank you for listening to. Best beginnings, A Baby's Own podcast. For more evidence informed support on babies and the early years, subscribe to this channel if you found this helpful. Share it with someone who might need it. We'll see you next
00:32:22:00 - 00:32:22:07
Unknown
We.