Postnatal Visits

Timeframe/Frequency: (1 month, 6 months, 12 months, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years)

One-Month Visit

At the one-month visit (about 1 hour):

• Physical measurements of your child will be collected, including: Length, weight, head circumference, genital measurements, and skinfold thickness.
• If you are breastfeeding your baby, we will ask you to provide a breast milk sample.
• We will collect a urine sample, rectal swab, and stool sample from your child.
• We will ask you questions about the health and well-being of you and your baby.
• We will have an activity for your baby where they will look at different pictures of faces to understand how they perceive and respond to the different faces.
• Lastly, if you consented, your baby will have an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) done at the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging at the University of Rochester.

Six-Month Visit

At the six-month visit (about 1 ½ - 2 hours):

• The physical measurements from the one-month visit will be repeated.
• If you are breastfeeding your baby, we will ask you to provide a breast milk sample.
• We will collect a urine sample, rectal swab, stool sample, blood sample, and saliva samples from your child.
• We will ask you questions about the health and well-being of you and your baby.
• We will observe you and your baby playing together. We will also have a series of problem solving activities for your baby to perform. Both will be recording on video. We do these activities in order to track how your baby’s behavior, personality, and problem-solving style develop during the early months and years of life.
• We will ask you questions about the health and well-being of you and your baby.

Twelve-Month Visit

At the twelve-month visit (about 2 ½ - 3 hours):

• We will repeat the physical measurements done at previous visits.
• We will collect a urine sample, rectal swab, blood sample, saliva swabs, and a cheek swab from your child.
• We will collect nail clippings from your child (or provide you with a kit to collect them at home).
• We will observe you and your child playing together and we will observe how your child responds to new people and how he or she plays in your presence and when you are not in the room. We will also have a series of problem-solving activities for your child to perform. These activities will be recorded on video.
• We will examine your child’s problem-solving abilities, social behavior, and toy preferences using a computerized system. We will also observe how your child interacts with toys in his or her environment and we will videotape this session so that we can study it later.
• We will again ask you questions about the health and well-being of you and your child.

Two-Year Visit

At the two-year visit (about 3 hours):

• We will repeat the physical measurements done at previous visits.
• We will collect a rectal swab, saliva samples, nail clippings, and a swab of the inside of your child’s cheek.
• We will again observe you and your child playing together and have a series of problem-solving activities for your child to perform. These activities will be recorded on video.
• We will look at how your child’s problem-solving abilities and social behaviors have changed using the same computerized system as at the twelve-month visit. We will also observe how your child interacts with toys in his or her environment and we will videotape this session so that we can study it later.
• We will ask your child to perform different tasks to understand aspects of their working memory, flexible thinking, and patience.
• We will again ask you questions about the health and well-being of you and your child.

Three-Year Visit

At the three-year visit (about 2 hours):

• We will repeat the same physical measurements from previous visits, except for the genial measurements. Additionally, we will measure your child’s ring finger length, pointer finger length, and waist circumference.
• We will observe you and your child playing together. At this visit, we will have an additional activity for you and your child to work on halfway through your play time together.
• We will ask your child to perform different tasks to understand aspects of their working memory, flexible thinking, and patience.
• We will ask your child to do a series of different "brain games" on an iPad.
• We will look at how your child’s problem-solving abilities have changed using the same computerized system as at the past two visits.
• We will also have a series of activities around food choice and preferences for your child. You will be asked about doing an additional 24-hour dietary recall for your child and can choose to consent to this extra sub-study.
• We will again ask you questions about the health and well-being of you and your child.

Four-Year Visit

At the four-year visit (about 3 hours):

• We will repeat the same physical measurements from previous visit at age 3.
• We will observe you and your child playing together. At this visit, we will have an additional activity for you and your child to work on halfway through your play time together.
• We will ask your child to perform different tasks to understand aspects of their working memory, flexible thinking, and patience.
• We will ask your child to do a series of different "brain games" on an iPad.
• We will look at how your child’s problem-solving abilities have changed using the same computerized system as at the past two visits.
• We will ask your child to provide some samples: urine, saliva, and blood.
• We will also have a series of activities around food choice and preferences for your child.
• We will again ask you questions about the health and well-being of you and your child.