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Photo by Gerald R. Nino/Wikimedia.org ACEs in Pediatrics community manager's note: On Wednesday the Trump administration signed an executive order to end its policy of separating children from their parents who were arrested and detained after crossing the border. How long it takes to reunite the children -- including infants and toddlers -- with their parents remains to be seen. The AAP posted an executive order against family separation. To read it in full, please click here

"Adverse experiences in infancy and toddlerhood: Relations to adaptive behavior and academic status in middle childhood", will be published in the August issue of the journal Child Abuse and Neglect . The study, conducted by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences researchers Lorraine McKelvey, Nikki Edge, Glenn R. Mesman, and Leanne Whiteside-Mansell, along with Arizona State University researcher Robert H. Bradley, collected and analyzed interview data from a sample of low-income...

“It’s okay to tell me that you’re not okay.” Postpartum depression (PPD) and postpartum or perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) are the most common medical concerns for women after childbirth. Yet few medical and mental health professionals really know how prevalent and serious PPD and PMADs are. There is a great need for better screening to identify women struggling with postpartum disorders. Likewise, more therapists and mental health providers need to know about treatment...

Many people who see reports of children separated from their parents might think that, because they’re not crying, that they’ve adjusted. Or, if they are crying, they’ll eventually stop and get over it. But, the reality is that those who participate in separating children from their parents and those who are caring for them in the detainment centers might as well be beating them with truncheons.

American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Colleen Craft recently visited a shelter for migrant children in Texas, according to an article in The Washington Post, and expressed concern that the traumatic separation of children from a trusted adult can have long-term health consequences for both the children and the parent. In an earlier op ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, Craft wrote, " Prolonged exposure to highly stressful situations — known as toxic stress — can disrupt a child's...

Mothers who 'connect' with their baby during pregnancy are more likely to interact in a more positive way with their infant after it is born, according to a study carried out at the University of Cambridge. Interaction is important for helping infants learn and develop. Researchers at the Centre for Family Research carried out a meta-analysis, reviewing all published studies in the field, in an attempt to demonstrate conclusively whether there was a link with the way parents think about...

Among the many adverse childhood experiences, one must consider are the effects of maternal depression and of mothers being the victim of physical or sexual violence. What is the toll of these on children? Neamah et al. ( 10.1542/peds.2017-3457 ) decided to evaluate this by looking at the strength of such an association on the cognitive development as well as physical growth of over a thousand toddlers between 18 to 36 months living in Tanzania. These children underwent developmental testing...

Judy’s first pregnancy was planned, and she was looking forward to having a baby. Yet, halfway through the pregnancy, something changed. She began to feel down and bad about herself. She had less energy and struggled to concentrate. Thinking this was a normal part of pregnancy, she ignored it. After she delivered her son, it all got worse. She felt as if she was in a black hole of sadness. She often gave her son to her mother, thinking he was better off without her. It wasn’t until a year...

It started as an answer to a youth-led campaign. Young people in arts programs in San Francisco Bay Area schools had produced spoken word videos about inequities in their communities that helped put them at risk for type 2 diabetes. Dr. Jean Junior The response by their peers was enormous, according to Dr. Jean Junior, who volunteered for the project as a pediatric resident at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). “Young people would say ‘You’ve actually gotten me interested.

Dear ACEs Community, The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has released a Draft Recommendation Statement on Child Maltreatment: Primary Care Interventions. Opportunity for public comment expires on June 18, 2018 at 8:00 PM EST. View the full Draft at: https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Document/RecommendationStatementDraft/child-maltreatment-primary-care-interventions1#consider Here's an excerpt from the recommendation: In 2013, the USPSTF found...

Some 41 percent of transgender adults report that they have attempted suicide at some point in their lives, according to a report by the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Family Development, Children, Youth & Family Consortium reviewing research. Those attempts are associated with bullying and victimization, according to a growing body of research, cited in the report. The authors reviewed research and strategies that could be used by communities to build resilience among...

Photo by Terabass/ CC-SA-3.0 It was around 2010 that Dr. Angela Bymaster was seeing a disturbing pattern in the histories of her adult patients. She already knew that patients who saw her at the Valley Homeless Health Care Program in San Jose, CA, where she worked at the time, were homeless or recently homeless. What was most troubling to Bymaster was knowing that their current precarious existence could have been prevented. Dr. Angela Bymaster “Over and over and over again I was hearing the...