Up in Smoke
Vaping may seem safer than smoking cigarettes. But women who use electronic cigarettes during pregnancy are 33% more likely than those who don’t to give birth to low-birthweight infants. Quitting altogether is the best option for mother and child.
Resources
Women Who Vape Are More Likely to Have Low-birthweight Babies, Study Shows (UCLA)
What We Know About Electronic Cigarettes (SmokeFree.gov)
Quitting Vaping? 5 Tips for Handling Nicotine Withdrawal (Truth Initiative)
Curious Pre-K
Experts at Rutgers University may have uncovered the sweet spot where children move from uncertainty to curiosity. This is big news for learning!
Resources
Just Enough Information Will Motivate Young Children to Learn, Drive Curiosity (Rutgers Today)
8 Tips to Develop Children's Curiosity (Mayo Clinic)
The Trauma of Addiction
Why do some people develop addictions and others don’t? It’s very complicated but one reason has to do with early childhood trauma. More early interventions and supports are needed to treat addiction before it starts.
Resources
Childhood trauma can make people like morphine more (Science Daily)
The American Rescue Plan
The American Rescue Plan is great start in helping American families recover from the financial woes caused by COVID-19. But it is just that: recovery. And recovery is always easier when you are healthy to begin with. It’s when we have underlying and preexisting conditions that recovery can be more difficult, take longer, and even be life threatening.
Resources
The American Rescue Plan (The White House)
Child Care Relief Funding in American Rescue Plan: State-by-State Estimates (CLASP)
Coming Soon: $300 Checks for Parents (NY Times)
The Amazon Needs You
It’s hard to imagine someone less at fault for the climate crisis facing the world than a newborn baby living in the Amazon. Yet, this child is among the humans most at risk to experience the negative effects of climate change. Research out of Lancaster University in the United Kingdom explains why.
Resources
No Second Chance for Secondhand Smoke
We know that no level of tobacco smoke exposure is safe for pregnant moms or babies. Yet experts are still learning the extent of the damage done by this toxin. It may even be is linked to changes in how a baby’s genes are regulated and could cause developmental disorders and adult diseases.
Resources
The Debt of Child Care
Forty-five percent of Americans say they will incur credit card debt this summer to pay for child care. They are going in to debt to pay for the care they need so they can go to work to pay off the debt for the care they need to go to work. It is mind boggling.
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Universal Child Care is Universally Good
Women have long been hit the hardest because affordable child care remained out of reach for too many. Universal child care could change that and boost lifetime earnings for women by $130 billion. So when do we start?
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Still Spanking?
Spanking one's child is not only still common in our culture but also still legal in every U.S. state. It does far more harm than good so let's stop the spanking.
Resources
Americans are still spanking their kids. A new study shows how harmful that is. (Washington Post)
Global study shows spanking does more harm than good (University of Michigan)
Alternatives to Spanking (NIU)
An Apple a Day
An apple a day may keep the doctor away but so can your child care provider. Learn more!
Resources
The ABC's of Improved Health Outcomes with Early Childhood Development (Heckman Equation)
Research Summary: Abecedarian & Health (Heckman Equation)
Health and Learning Are Deeply Interconnected in the Body: An Action Guide for Policymakers (Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University)