Mental Health Screening for Babies. What can we learn from infant and caregiver behaviors during immunization appointments?

This study sought to examine 2 scalable biomarkers during a routine well child visit. First, we wanted to examine a link between dynamic changes in gut colonization based on microbiome measurements at 4 months in babies and relationship style between babies and their caregivers based on behaviors observed during vaccination appointments. We also wanted to examine how infant cries during vaccination appointment correlate with their microbiome at 4 months of age. The research team recruited caregiver and baby dyads (N=31) d presenting for Well Baby Visits (WBV) at 4 months appointments[13]. Participants were recruited from the Pediatric and Family Medicine Employee and Community Health Clinics (ECH) that is well-established at Mayo Clinic, Rochester. Healthy infants born after more than 36 weeks of gestation were included. Exclusion criteria included: developmental delays, neurological impairments, infants born prematurely, infants with known impairments, caregivers not fluent in English, children who were adopted or if their parents who did not give authorization to participate in the study or who did not consent to vaccination were excluded.The study had the following Aims:Aim 1. To examine the feasibility of a simple 5 minutes screening procedure that assesses relationship between an infant and their caregiver and the caregiver's capacity to repair and re-regulate the infants' state at 4 months WBVs (Well-Baby Visits).We hypothesize that WBVs may provide an opportunity to integrate brief infant mental health screening that will identify subjects who would benefit from intervention.Aim 2. To examine a link between dynamic changes in gut colonization based on microbiome measurements, and the relevance of other biomarkers specifically Heart Rate Variability (HRV) at 4 months in babies and relationship style between babies and their caregivers based on behaviors observed during vaccination appointments.