A UK child health app is sending our vaccine guidance from trusted sources and alerts to remind parents of children’s’ vaccination times.
Nurturey said it has tripled the level of support it is providing to parents during this pandemic by distributing advice from the NHS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other medical providers.
It is reminding parents that sticking to the vaccination schedule, even though they understandably feel worried, “will help avoid outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases.”
The message from Public Health England is ‘Keep Calm and Carry on Vaccinating’, but for some parents the thought of taking their child to the GP surgery during the coronavirus outbreak feels scary. Nurturey added that this is leading to some parents missing routine vaccinations.
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Sesh Naidoo, is a mum of one, with another baby on the way. She said: “I am currently 35 weeks pregnant with my second baby. When I had my first baby, I really struggled with mental fatigue and I remember walking all the way to the children’s centre a few times and completely forgetting my son’s red book.
“I don’t think I ever forgot to take my phone though! Being able to track my children's health information on my phone and share this with my husband will not only help me in my second pregnancy but also give me the confidence I could have had the first time round.”
45,000 parents have signed up to the app so far. Tushar Srivastava, founder of Nurturey commented: “We will continue to provide relevant and timely immunisation information to parents throughout lockdown and beyond, because we know that parents find it reassuring to have a high level of medical information at their fingertips, without having to search for it online.”
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Parents can also record their child’s weight, height and other significant milestones like ‘first time walking’ and ‘first tooth’ through Nurturey’s digital red book.
Nurturey is available as a stand-alone app in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland so parents can record milestones, but the app is not yet integrated to GP surgeries here, so parents wouldn't get immunisation alerts.
This project is being run in line with the NHS Digital Personal Child Health framework which is only in England and Wales.
The physical red book or Personal Child Health Record that is still given to parents after their baby is born is expected to soon be discontinued in favour of this type of digital red book instead, according to the team at Nurturey.
