The big emotional, financial costs of childhood poverty

A pediatrician writes about the ACEs in the impoverished community in which he works.

It's spring, and once again I find myself sitting on my back porch gazing at the disparities on the two sides of our modest backyard. On the sunny side, a dozen varieties of flowers blossom in a colorful collage of reds, blues and whites, attracting honeybees and even hummingbirds. On the shady side, the ground is hard, the grass grows poorly, and the colors are bland. With the right seedlings and care, I know we can grow something beautiful there.

Much the same disparities hold across America, where 43 percent of children live in or near poverty, and the health effects of growing up that way can be life-altering.

Consider a recent day of patients in our large pediatric practice. My first patient was a 2-week-old, born to a mother, 16, who was sleeping in the same bed with her infant. The next child, a morbidly obese 9-year-old, was recently readmitted to our hospital for his third asthma attack this year. With him came his brother, 10, with ADHD and learning issues. Next up was an 18-month-old with speech delay whose parents are struggling with food insecurity. It was 9:30 a.m., and I still had nine more patients to go.

The common denominator for these patients is that they live in the First Congressional District, the third-most-impoverished for children in the United States. This epicenter of child poverty sits just four miles from the William Penn statue atop City Hall.

 

http://www.philly.com/philly/health/kidshealth/20140622_The_big_emotional__financial_costs_of_childhood_poverty.html