HEALTH
“The first five years have so much to do with how the next 80 will turn out”
- Bill Gates
Physical and mental health in early childhood set the stage for lifelong health. This includes appropriate medical and dental care; access to good nutrition; safe and appropriate housing; an attached, nurturing caregiver; and protection from adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress. Without these basic elements, children are at risk for developing chronic disease, mental illness, substance use, and economic insecurity as adolescents and adults.
Examples of programs and education offered to young parents to promote healthy children are:
Pre-natal counseling with a focus on nutrition, avoidance of substance abuse that will harm the infant and reducing stress.
Developmental issues that could be identified early so that proper services can be recommended. This might be mental health, social-emotional issues and screening for developmental delays.
Identifying child maltreatment that may not be readily apparent unless one knows the family’s circumstances.
Overall needs such as secure income, safe housing, and enough food to sustain the family as a whole.
Photo by J. Zevalkink, courtesy of the Leelanau Children’s Center
Why Focus on the Prenatal-to-3 Age Period?
The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center at The University of Texas at Austin translates the current research why investing in families during the earliest years can improve quality of life in the short- and long-term. This 2021 research brief expands these key facts:
Experiences of financial hardship during early childhood can disrupt healthy brain development.
A child’s developing brain depends on secure attachments and serve-and-return interactions.
Child health and wellbeing are unmistakably tied to parental health.
Children are more likely to experience abuse and neglect during their first three years of life than at any other age.
Only 24 percent of infants & toddlers are placed in child care considered to be high quality by established standards.
Health Starts Early
Providing healthy, nurturing surroundings for our children in their earliest years can help establish the building blocks for lifelong health. From their birth through adolescence, supporting healthy cognitive, social and emotional development in our children, and connections with parents and caregivers, are some of the most important things we can do to raise healthy, well-rounded adults.
