If Babies Could Smoke

It's easy to forget that the deck is stacked against millions of children in distressed communities across this country. Living with everyday violence, poor nutrition, inadequate housing and income instability (to name just a few) can affect a child's ability to learn and achieve academic success. Fortunately the renewed push for universal preschool is reminding the public that early education is essential to cognitive development and can mitigate the effects of poverty on success in high school and beyond.

But do policy-makers know that living in toxic conditions has lifelong implications for health? The Carolina Abecedarian Project, which has followed two groups of babies since 1972, shows that poor children who had quality early education are far healthier today than their peers who received none. The CDC's Adverse Childhood Experiences Study ties early adversity to adult onset of chronic disease along with mental illness and concomitant social problems.

The latest research on brain development and immunology suggests that violence and trauma affect the architecture of the brain. Chronic stress -- unlike the "healthy" stress associated with a playoff game or a final exam -- is an attack on a child's developing mind.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martine-singer/if-babies-could-smoke_b_5148769.html