KARACHI: Expressing serious concern over parental negligence in early childhood development, senior paediatricians at an event held on Saturday at a local hotel said that a child’s early exposure to mobile phones could potentially cause psychological and behavioural problems.

They were speaking at the inaugural of a two-day national conference on paediatrics organised by the Paediatric Association of Pakistan (PPA)-Sindh.

“Mother’s role is critical in a newborn’s mental development. Unfortunately, however, most women are unaware of how their seemingly harmless actions could affect their child. One such common practice is to expose children to mobile phones at a very early age,” noted Dr Jamal Raza.

He explained that children’s brains were built, moment by moment, as they interacted with their parents, especially mothers, and the environment.

Two-day national conference on paediatrics opens

“Yet, mothers often unknowingly place mobile phones in front of their crying child to distract them. It seriously affects the child’s cognitive, linguistic, social and social-emotional growth,” he said, adding that today, mental disorders have become increasingly common at an early age.

The speakers also shared concern over poor breastfeeding practices, stating that a child’s development faced multiple threats, including inadequate parental awareness as well as mothers’ growing reliance on bottle feeding. The latter, they pointed out, increases children’s vulnerability to disease, disability and even death.

Breastfeeding, they said, increases immunity and a child’s self-confidence and that it is now mandatory under the law to breastfeed newborns for two years.

In his remarks, Dr Waseem Jamalvi and Dr Saadullah Chachar said that the conference’s discussions would help build a strategy to bridge the gap between illness and treatment especially in remote areas where there was a dire need for telemedicine to treat children, especially newborns.

“The association is trying to provide immediate primary medical assistance to ailing children in rural areas and transfer them to hospitals in the city. Parents, too, need to step forward and should take their ailing children to qualified doctors,” emphasised Dr Chachar, adding that early diagnosis and treatment are critical to saving lives.

The speakers also talked about the efforts being made to implement the law against the sale of artificial milk. However, if a newborn needs artificial milk, they pointed out, it should only be provided on a doctor’s prescription.

The experts stressed that children must be vaccinated to protect them from various diseases and that vaccination was their basic right.

Prof M. A. Arif, Prof Iqbal Memon, Dr Khalid Shafi, Dr Mohsina Noor Ibrahim, and Dr Rahat also shared their insights on the issue, highlighting that the conference’s recommendations would be shared with the government.

The two-day conference features discussions on disease prevention, infectious and gastrointestinal diseases, mental health issues, pulmonology and neurology.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2026