Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Poverty is a stress that I had to deal with in my childhood. My mother was a single mother for most of my childhood, and has 3 children. We are all 6 years apart in age. We always had the things that we needed, not necessarily the things that we wanted. I remember when I was a child, we struggled to eat well, lived in a house that was so cold in the winter that the water in the toilet froze and washed our clothes in the bath tub at times. I feel that I have overcome this through my education and working really hard to overcome. Poverty is a heartbreaking reality for families all over the world, from our own neighbors, to the cities and states we live in to other countries. While my personal story has many other details that I choose not to share, it is impossible to pretend that poverty doesn't effect  many families. Living in poverty not only effects children's ability to learn (hungry children have a hard time concentrating) but also effects children's self esteem and parent's confidence.
 In Texas this year alone, 37% of single parent homes are living in poverty. Furthermore, according to globalissues.org, about 80% of the world lives on less than $10 a day. A day. Some ways that this issue is being addressed is through aide provided by the state. In Texas, this aide comes in many forms, from food stamps, to aide with child care and rent. Hopefully, by banning together, and facing the reality of poverty we can come up with solutions that will be lifelong and not only circumstantial. As educators, I believe it is important for us to know the resources available for families and have relationships with families that will allow us to encourage families in need to reach out for help.

For more information visit:
http://spotlightonpoverty.org/states/texas/ or
 http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

Child Development and Public Health

For this week's blog assignment, I chose to explore breastfeeding. This topic is meaningful for me because of my work with young children and their families as well as because of the struggles I have seen friends and family go through while trying to be successful in breastfeeding. I have learned about the benefits of breastfeeding and the one that stands out the most to me is attachment. It is an intimate connection between a mother and her child to breastfeed and we have learned how attachment is so very important to development of the whole child.
I am going to share this story with you, with my sister's permission, to try to explain why I chose this topic. I do not have any children of my own, but have a 10 month old niece that I love very much. When she was born on Christmas day 2015, her momma had decided long before that she wanted to breastfeed.  She was able to breastfeed for 4 months with occasional supplementing with formula. It was a joy to see the bonds that were being made between my sister and her daughter. Man oh man could that sweet girl eat! My sister seemed to be breastfeeding all the time and/or the baby was hungry all the time. While breastfeeding baby B would fall asleep and in turn momma B was not producing enough milk. Baby B loved breastfeeding and was soothed during the experience falling asleep and not sucking, momma B's body did not produce more milk.  For everyone's emotional health, momma B and the pediatrician decided to go with formula exclusively. Momma B said that when she went to breastfeeding class, the instructor said that "everyone can do this, your body is made to breastfeed" and was frustrated when her body did not cooperate with that. She says that there is no shame in switching to formula and it was better for everyone in her family when she switched because she stressed when pumping and not getting much, baby B latching and the milk not flowing in an effective way, and her husband supported her all the way through it. Within a week after making the decision to switch, she dried up, not having to deal with engorgement, leaking any of those things, because she just didn't have any milk left. Now at 10 months, baby B is thriving, walking, 20lbs 6 ounces and 29 inches long. I think that often mothers feel that if they are not successful in exclusive breastfeeding they have failed somehow. I know that it was difficult for me to watch my sister struggle with the frustration, the anxiety and exhaustion of not producing enough milk. I am however SUPER proud of her for taking the steps to research and talk with her pediatrician and making the hard decision to switch.

In my research I found that in the United States, only 33% of infants 4 months or younger are exclusively breastfed and by 6 months of age that number drops to 14%.  These numbers are low compared to Peru where 97% of babies are breastfed at birth and 69% of these babies are breastfed until they are 20 months old. This is different than the infants in India, where 46% of infants are exclusively breastfed and the mother's in rural areas consider the colostrum to be "dirty milk" and discard it.  You can read more about this and breastfeeding in other countries at http://www.incultureparent.com/2012/03/breastfeeding-around-the-world/.

I believe that knowing about breastfeeding and having some second hand information from my sister and her struggles better equips me to aide those mothers I work with who might be struggling. It is important for my work to build and maintain relationships with families. Maybe, just maybe, meeting them in this scary, maybe unfamiliar place with a success story found in baby B, will help them know that I care for them and their struggle. Maybe then, they will be able to trust me to be, if nothing else, a sounding board for the journey.


Just for fun here is a picture of Baby B and me! :)
Isn't she lovely?!?