In this episode, Greg Dickens and I discuss recent news on induction of labour to prevent shoulder dystocia and on the link between gestational diabetes and ADHD. We then talk about walking - the benefits, why it’s hard to enable children to walk enough, and what we can do for babies and children to help them walk more. Finally, we discuss the links between premastication and dental disease.

We’re going to start releasing either an article or a podcast every week (instead of both), so stay tuned for the next episode the week after next!

Topics covered

* Why the conclusions of the Big Baby trial aren’t well supported by the data [01:05 ]

* Why you really shouldn’t worry if you’re told you’re at risk of having a ‘big baby [07:45 ]

* How a mother’s gestational diabetes may affect the child’s risk of ADHD [13:48 ]

* Why walking is great [18:58 ]

* Why it’s hard for children in WEIRD cultures to walk enough [24:40 ]

* How to set babies up for walking [31:44 ]

* How to help children walk more [35:35 ]

* How premastication affects dental disease [45:35 ]

What topics should we cover next?

These other podcast episodes cover overlapping topics:

Resources mentioned in this podcast

* Big Baby trial results: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)00162-X/fulltext

* Critique of Big Baby trial by Sara Wickham, research midwife and all-round incredible bad-science debunker: https://www.sarawickham.com/articles-2/bigbaby/

* Gestational diabetes and risk of ADHD: https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12887-024-05365-y

* Premastication may transmit bacteria associated with decay: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK535349/

* Premastication may reduce tooth decay: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5101600/ and https://www.fortunejournals.com/articles/parity-maternalchild-oral-interactions-and-early-childhood-caries-ecc-among-northern-nigerian-hausa-children.html

* Genes associated with walking: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02145-1

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