Consequences of Stress on Child Development

Early in our marriage my husband went back to college to change careers and at the time we had our oldest daughter Jordan, but shortly after moving back to Stillwater for him to return to school I found out I was pregnant with our second children daughter Lauren.  We were extremely poor at the time and we survived on the food items we received from the Women, Infants and Child (WIC) food program.  Our daughters were so young they don't remember that time in our lives so I don't think it effected their development.  My parents provided a strong support system for us.  They provided so many things that our children that our girls never knew that we were poor.  We were so poor at the time we did not even have a telephone so if my parents needed to get in touch with us they called the family that lived a couple door down and they would come get us.  That almost does not seem real now.  I have worked in Head Start for many years so I have seen first hand where poverty impacts children and sometimes their development if they don't have proper nutrition or adequate housing.  We were poor, but we were fortunate that we did not experience life changing poverty.

I was reading in the Kids Count Oklahoma website and almost 16% of Oklahoma's children live in poverty according to 2010 data collection (The Anne E. Casey Foundation, 2012).  This percentage has grown every year for the last four years.  This is a continual problem for children in child care in the state of Oklahoma. 

I think some of the resources available to children and families in poverty include WIC, Food Stamps, Head Start, Early Head Start and Medicaid.  We were able to access part of these programs for our family and they made a big difference in our children's lives.  My middle child Lauren had lost of medical issues as a child and has continued to have medical issues throughout her life, but having Medicaid so that we could take care her to the doctor when we needed to was such a relief.  We are very fortunate now we both have great jobs and are not in need of these services, but because of our past it has made me a true advocate for children and families in poverty.  Most of them are not living in poverty because that is the life they want they are there because of an unfortunate circumstance.  Many people are just one chronic medical issue away from poverty. 

I chose to look again to Venezuela since that is the country of origin for my husband.  He still has most of his family still living there so we are well aware that the country is struggling with poverty.  I was able to find an article about a music program that they have implemented to bring the joy of playing musical instruments to children in poverty.  The article even stated that the government has put 64 million dollars into the program and that Chavez, the President is a supporter of the program (Walkin, 2012).  These programs are operated in the schools after school so it is a way of protecting the children by keeping them off of the streets.  The program serves pre-K through sixth grade. 

Poverty is everywhere and it is our duty and responsibility to ensure that we have programs and support families in poverty.  I think that programs like Head Start and Early Head Start are amazing because they provide a quality environment for the children grow and development so that their economic situation does not impact their development. Additionally, they also provide a parent component so that parents can learn how to better themselves as well.

References:

The Anne E. Casey Foundation.  (2012).  Data center kids count.  Retrieved from:  http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bystate/stateprofile.aspx?state=OK&loc=38

Walkin, D. J. (2012, February 15).  Fighting Poverty, Armed with Violins.  The New York Times.  Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/arts/music/el-sistema-venezuelas-plan-to-help-children-through-music.html?pagewanted=all

Child Development and Public Health

The public health topic I chose is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) because it amazes me with all the research there is out there about SIDS that parents are still buying bumper pads for infant cribs.  According to the American Academy of Pediatrics parents should keep soft objects, loose bedding, or any objects that could increase the risk of entrapment, suffocation, or strangulation out of a crib (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2011).  If parents are not going to stop purchasing bumper pads I do think that it is critical and ethical for manufactures to stop making bumper pads because if they are a part of the "bedding set" parents are going to keep purchasing them.  This one of my personal pet peeves that by saving money and purchasing the bumper pad you may in fact be saving your babies life.  Additionally, putting the baby on their back to go to sleep for the first year of life again is a potential life saving measure for your baby.  Even with all the public awareness these two simple tasks are still not being taken by a great number of people and unfortunately we are still seeing many infants die due to SIDS.

In Australia there is new research that states by breastfeeding for the first six months exclusively and then continue to breastfeed until age one reduces the risk of SIDS by nearly half (Hofman, 2012).  This is just another way of protecting our babies with breastfeeding reducing their risk of SIDS as well as many other potential illnesses.

I think for me finding a way to educate new parents about the risk of SIDS should become a task for all early childhood professionals because we have access to the most current research to share with parents.  I also provide printout about the bedding, back to sleep and now I will also include information about breastfeeding as well in all of the baby shower gifts I give so it is my own little attempt to change the world one new parent at a time. 

American Academy of Pediatrics.  (2011, December 28).  Reducing the risk of SIDS.  Retrieved from http://www.healthychildren.org/english/ages-stages/baby/sleep/pages/Preventing-SIDS.aspx?nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token

Hofman, H. (2012, May 16).  Global Post.  Breastfeeding halves risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).  Retrieved from http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/120516/breastfeeding-halves-risk-of-sudden-infant-death-sydrome-s