December 2017

Full essay by Sejal Patel

I don't share many details about my daughter's health history or health issues because she, to date, is far more private than I am. Plus, she's still in her childhood. But, I am continually learning about early adversity, loss, transition, trauma, malnutrition through first-hand experiences and through research because stuff that happened fifteen and sixteen years ago when she was in utero, in another country as well as in an orphanage. All of those things still impact her and our family as...

The evidence is clear. When bad things happen to us as young children, we are at significantly increased risk for not only mental health problems, but also a wide range of physical health problems including asthma, heart disease, and even early death. These "bad things" all involve disruptions in caregiving relationships. A national movement directed at screening for ACEs in pediatric practices has emerged from this work. My suggestion that the implication of the Adverse Childhood...

Spanking your child may have unintended consequences as he or she forges adult romantic relationships years later, a new study suggests. The study found that spanked kids tended to have higher odds of being violent towards their dating partners, researchers said. Specifically, people who got spanked as kids had a 29 percent higher risk for perpetrating dating violence, the findings showed. That held true even after the researchers took into account the person's age, gender, parents'...

Editor's note: This story contains language that may be offensive. In February 2009, Samantha Pierce became pregnant with twins. It was a time when things were going really well in her life. She and her husband had recently gotten married. They had good jobs. "I was a kick-ass community organizer," says Pierce, who is African-American and lives in Cleveland. She worked for a nonprofit that fought against predatory lending. The organization was growing, and Pierce had been promoted to...

Nationally, nearly 25 percent of children aged 17 and under have experienced at least one traumatic event, whether it be physical abuse, neglect or living with a family member who has struggled with alcoholism or drug use, recent federal data shows. Among Black youth, however, 30 percent have suffered a traumatic event, with another 35 percent suffering two or more adverse childhood experiences, also known as “ACEs.” The stats are the findings of a state-by-state poll released last year from...

Belleruth Naparstek was the last featured guest in our Parenting with ACEs chat series last week. She is a psychotherapist, author, and guided imagery pioneer. She is the creator of the popular Health Journeys guided imagery audio series and author of Staying Well with Guided Imagery and Invisible Heroes: Survivors of Trauma and How They H eal. During the chat, Naparstek shared a bit about guided imagery and how and why it can be effective for those of us with ACEs and/or post-traumatic...

Children and adolescents who suffer adversity, including abuse, throughout childhood tend to have poorer cardiometabolic health, according to an American Heart Association committee report. All forms of abuse, including bullying, neglect, or witnessing violence, are linked to a greater increased risk of cardiovascular disease, said the report, authored by Shakira F. Suglia, ScD, of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York City, and colleagues writing in Circulation.

As 2017 comes to a close, many teens are feeling the effects of devastating events, including school shootings , natural disasters and terrorist attacks. "They are bombarded constantly, and they are very connected to it," says David Head, director of mental health and wellness for Communities In Schools Houston, part of a national nonprofit that provides services to underserved students. Students directly and indirectly affected by these events may be feeling the effects of trauma –...

For me, resiliency is in part innate. I don't think we can teach resilience. Through love and connection we can most certainly nurture it. A key piece of resiliency is connection with others. I look back at all that I have endured in my life and wonder what made me keep getting back up. Why did I become more tenacious each time life and family knocked me down? For me, what kept me going was being out in the world connecting with people throughout the day. It made me feel part of something...

Link to abstract of article published in Dec. 2017, Pediatrics, by Adelar Pedro Franz , Gul Unsel Bolat , Hilmi Bolat , Alicia Matijasevich , Iná Silva Santos , Rita C. Silveira , Renato Soibelmann Procianoy , Luis Augusto Rohde , Carlos Renato Moreira-Maia. The abstract conclusion is as follows:

Four fathers fleeing death threats from gangs in Central America traveled thousands of miles to reach the safety they saw in the U.S. border. Then immigration officials forced them to hand over their children. The men were together when officials came to take their children about two weeks ago. They haven't been able to talk to their children even by phone since then, they said. “They took him without clothes, without my authorization,” said Eric Matute Castro, 33, one of the fathers, about...