Putting Children at Risk
May 5, 2010
Daily news
ISN'T IT AMAZING how quickly babies and toddlers grow? From month to month, the changes are remarkable - just ask any proud grandma or grandpa.
But the rapid development that so delights families everywhere can make very young children in low-income families vulnerable to injuries caused by the stresses of poverty: hunger, crowded housing, lack of heat. So much is happening in their brains during the time between birth to 3 years old that the effects of "material hardships" can become biologically embedded in their bodies, limiting their future abilities to do well in school or in the working world.
This is what's happening right now, right here in Philadelphia. The future of the city's next generation could be at risk.
The evidence: A study of children under 3 in five cities - including Philadelphia - that documented that problems with food, housing and energy insecurity act together to decrease a small child's chance of what the researchers called "well-being": good health and normal growth and development...
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