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THIS WEEK'S
HEADLINES
NEWS IMPACTING CHILDREN 0-5 AND THEIR FAMILIES
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Here is a quick look at some headlines from this week impacting the lives of kids 0-5 and their families. The purpose of these stories is simply to share information, and do not necessarily reflect First 5 Kern's areas of support, opinions or efforts towards these issues.
Follow First 5 Kern on social media (@First5Kern) for more kids news, as well as information about our funded programs and initiatives.
Now for the headlines...
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EARLY CHILDCARE & EDUCATION
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What child care centers can teach schools about
how to reopen safely
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The Bakersfield City School District announced it plans to open its campuses to elementary school students for the first time since COVID-19 shut school sites down. Should BCSD's plan succeed, it would become the largest district in Kern County to open its campuses.
According to a staff memo sent out Tuesday by Superintendent Doc Ervin, the proposal returns students in preschool through second grade for in-person instruction beginning March 22. Students in grades third through sixth would begin March 24. (Bakersfield Californian)
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What child care centers can teach schools about
how to reopen safely
The CDC just issued a strong recommendation that children return to in-person schooling as quickly as possible.
What many people don’t realize, however is that early childhood and infant care centers are already open, and have been largely operating in the background for much of the pandemic. So it may surprise people to know that in fact, day care centers—yes, full of sloppy, drooly kids—have fared surprisingly well during this crisis. (Ms.)
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California's low kindergarten attendance creates a 1st grade problem
Thousands of California families chose to keep their children out of kindergarten this past year, opting instead for other in-person programs or no school at all.
That means thousands — or potentially tens of thousands — more children than usual will be hitting first grade next school year without having been through kindergarten, putting even more stress on an already strained system. (SF Chronicle)
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1 in 3 parents feel the pandemic has made it harder to get preventive dental care for their child |
A third of parents say the COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult to get dental care for their children, a new national poll suggests.
But some families may face greater challenges than others. Inability to get a dentist appointment during the pandemic was three times as common for children with Medicaid versus those with private dental coverage, according to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health at Michigan Medicine. (U. Michigan)
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Masks can be detrimental to babies' speech and language development
Now that the face mask has become the essential accoutrement of our lives, the COVID pandemic has laid bare our fundamental need to see whole faces.
Could it be that babies and young children, who must learn the meaning of the myriad communicative signals normally available in their social partners’ faces, are especially vulnerable to their degradation in partially visible faces? (Scientific American)
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How to keep families safe from common metals found in food
There’s been recent news about heavy metals found in baby foods, leaving parents with questions about the risks.
The Federal Drug Administration lists arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury as the most common metals found in foods. To reduce the risk of exposing your little ones, doctors with the American Academy of Pediatrics have these suggestions. (KFOX14)
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WATCH: California Surgeon General live webinar
FRIDAY, FEB. 19
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California Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris, MD, joins Washington Post Live to discuss how the vaccine rollout highlights long-standing racial inequities in health care, the impact of the pandemic on children’s mental health, and the path forward as California confronts new variants of the virus. Join the conversation today (Feb. 19) at 12:30pm PT.
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Healthcare for children heavily delayed during the pandemic |
An extensive proportion of parents delayed or put off healthcare visits and care for their children during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new report from The Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Nearly 30% of parents reported delaying or forgoing one or more types of pediatric healthcare due to fears of exposure to Covid-19 or limits from their healthcare providers, according to the organization’s coronavirus tracking survey from September 2020. (HealthExec)
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What kids have learned during the COVID-19 pandemic |
How important is it, in the middle of a pandemic, that your young child is reading ahead of schedule or can play soccer or the violin?
After months of stay-at-home orders and less-than-ideal home schooling, many of us worry we’re failing our children. But if COVID-19 has done nothing else, it’s provided us a great opportunity to examine our priorities — including our parenting — and focus on the most valuable ways we influence and enrich our children’s lives. (First 5 LA)
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10 Research-backed
tips on parenting in a digital era
While there hasn’t been a major study published yet on how much time students have spent online during the Covid-19 pandemic, every indication suggests that the answer is “more.”
In this era of social distancing, stay-at-home orders, online schooling and the return to in-person classes, research is more important than ever—it can help teach us how to parent well in a digital era. (Smithsonian)
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The single most important parenting lesson I always follow
As the proud father of three — with a fourth on the way — I’m finally getting the hang of this parenting thing. I’ve learned many valuable lessons over the years.
Be hands-on, change lots of diapers, cook and do the dishes (often), be present for your partner and your kids, be silly, be vulnerable, be fallible, and be teachable. The list is endless and full of beautiful possibilities.
But there’s one lesson that consistently ranks at the top: Be consistent. (Yahoo!)
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Pfizer to begin Covid vaccine clinical trial in pregnant women |
Pfizer-BioNTech said Thursday that it is beginning clinical trials of its Covid-19 vaccine in pregnant women, the first such trials to include expectant mothers in the U.S.
The drugmaker aims to enroll about 4,000 pregnant women in the trials, which will include participants in the U.S. as well as Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mozambique, South Africa, Spain and the U.K. Women over 18 and who are 24 to 34 weeks into their pregnancy will be eligible.
The first doses will be administered in the U.S., Pfizer said. (NBC News)
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Maternal heart health in pregnancy appears to impact child’s heart health
A mother’s health in pregnancy can have implications for her health after delivery, but research has found ample proof that it also has implications on her offspring’s future health.
A report in JAMA studied whether maternal cardiovascular health during pregnancy was linked to the offspring cardiovascular health in early adolescence. (Contemporary Pediatrics)
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Caffeine during
pregnancy can lead to behavioral issues
Drinking caffeine while pregnant may have a greater impact on the baby than first thought.
Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center looked at brain scans of thousands of children ages nine and 10 and found changes in brain structure in those exposed to caffeine in utero.
Researchers found that these children had elevated behavioral issues, attention difficulties, and were hyperactive. (WHAM)
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For the first time, scans link childhood stress with changes to key adult brain regions |
Negative experiences and maltreatment early in life are known risk factors for developing mental health disorders such as MDD, and the team behind this new study thinks that changes in brain function might be one of the reasons why.
The researchers suggest that damage done in the early years of life could then make the brain – and the amygdala and hippocampus in particular – more vulnerable to stresses that come along later in adult life. (ScienceAlert)
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First 5 Kern was established in 1998 when California voters passed Proposition 10, which levied a 50-cent tax on tobacco products. Revenues generated from the tobacco tax are used to fund local programs in the areas of health and wellness, early childcare and education, and parent education and support services that promote early childhood development for children ages zero to five.
For more information on First 5 Kern and the agencies we support, please visit www.First5Kern.org and follow us on social media.
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Special thanks to Vecteezy for assistance on graphics
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