Health visitors taught to read babies’ facial expressions to spot signs of distress

Health visitors are to receive training to spot signs of distress in newborns long before they can talk.

- Rachel Sylvester

A scheme based on interpreting babies’ facial expressions and behavioural cues is to be rolled out by the NHS to help spot early signs of psychological stress and encourage bonding between infants and parents.

The programme uses a tool called the ADBB (alarm distress baby scale) model, which nearly doubled the number of cases identified with concerns in trials in Warwickshire and the north-east.

The rollout will be funded by the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood and supported by the Princess of Wales, who saw it in use on a trip to Denmark in 2022.

Health visitors involved in the pilot said it had helped them have more “meaningful” conversations with parents and carers about the emotional wellbeing of their baby. They said the tool had made it easier for them to encourage bonding between parents and infants and identify families in need of greater support. The system was also popular with parents.

Eileen Perrins, the perinatal and infant mental health lead at the Institute of Health Visiting, said the training gave health visitors the confidence to deal with low-level concerns, leading to fewer referrals to specialist mental health services.