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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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Nearly 700 coronavirus-positive women gave birth at a single hospital. Here's what it learned. |
BYL Nair Charitable Hospital is a 99-year-old government-run institution in the heart of India’s financial capital of Mumbai.
Pregnant women from all over greater Mumbai, home to at least 18 million people, converged on Nair. At nearly 700 deliveries, its doctors believe the hospital has treated the largest number of pregnant women with COVID-19 in India - and possibly in the world. (Washington Post)
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Severe morning sickness linked to depression
Severe morning sickness, known as hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), is a debilitating condition that affects around 1-2 per cent of pregnant women in the UK (and hospitalizes nearly 60,000 women in the U.S. each year).
Far more serious than 'normal' morning sickness, it is one of the most common reasons for hospitalization during pregnancy and can continue right up until birth. Women can be bed-bound for weeks on end, suffer dehydration and weight loss and are often unable to work or care for other children they have. (Imperial)
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Prenatal cannabis exposure linked to cognitive, behavior effects
Regular cannabis exposure in rats during pregnancy may cause their offspring to have long-term cognitive deficiencies, asocial behavior, and anxiety later in adulthood, according to a new study.
"The reality of cannabis research is there's not a lot of it," said Halle Weimar, first author on the paper and graduate student in the neuroscience program. "This research helps get information out to women so they can make an educated decision that is best for them." (ScienceDaily)
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5 Things to avoid in personal care products if pregnant
If you’re pregnant, or trying to become pregnant, it’s likely you’re considering how to limit your exposure to toxic chemicals. After all, you no longer have just your health to think about, you also have that of your future child.
Pollution of our body begins even before we’re even born, through the placenta and umbilical cord. EWG’s 2009 landmark study, which tested the cord blood of 10 babies, found that every one of them was polluted with harmful chemicals. (EWG)
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Blood tests could help predict pregnancy complications
UCLA researchers say a blood test commonly used to detect fetal genetic abnormalities may help predict complications associated with pregnancy before symptoms develop.
The findings are the first to show that genetic material shed from the placenta into the mother's blood (circulating cell-free nucleic acids) during the first trimester of pregnancy could potentially be used to predict these potentially serious complications. (EurekAlert)
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How to help kids open up about anything
Taylor Quick, a licensed child therapist for Zola Counseling, a private practice in Charlotte, N.C., defines safe spaces as the relationship that a child has to her parent or caregiver to feel understood and heard. In her work with children between the ages of 2 and 12, Quick said she has observed that children feel more empowered “after their feelings have been validated.”
How do we create safe spaces to allow our children to manage their emotions and talk openly? (New York Times)
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Key to happiness for dads? Being present with newborns
Fatherhood has brought unexpected changes to the life of Jimmy Cate.
Sure, he knew that as a new dad he would sleep less. And, yes, he kind of figured there would be a lot of swaddling, diaper-changing and burping he'd have to learn. But since his son, Beric, was born August 24, the 35-year-old insurance agency manager has noticed a more fundamental transformation: He's happier. (CNN)
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Number of uninsured children grew for third straight year - prior to the pandemic
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The share of children with health coverage in the United States fell for the third consecutive year in 2019, according to census data, after decades of increases.
The decline occurred during a period of economic growth — before the coronavirus pandemic caused broad job losses that might have cost many more Americans their health insurance.
A report Friday by the Georgetown Center for Children and Families found that nationally, the number of children without health insurance rose by 320,000 last year alone, to a total of nearly 4.4 million children. (New York Times)
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CDC May not recommend coronavirus vaccine to children at first
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said coronavirus vaccines may not be recommended for children if and when they are first available.
The vaccine trials are expected to expand to children and pregnant women, but it’s possible the vaccines could be authorized for limited use in the U.S. before trials testing children are completed. (CNBC)
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COVID-19-fueled stress eating, lack of fitness expected to boost obesity
Pediatricians and public health experts predict a potentially dramatic increase in childhood obesity this year as months of pandemic eating, closed schools, stalled sports and public space restrictions extend indefinitely.
"We were making slow and steady progress until this," said one expert. "It's likely we will have wiped out a lot of the progress that we've made over the last decade in childhood obesity." (USA Today)
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ACEs & TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE
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Effects of poverty on childhood development seen in children as young as 5 |
In a nationwide study, UCLA researchers have found that health inequities can be measured in children as young as 5 years old. The research contributes to a growing body of literature finding that children of color who are also poor face greater health inequities than their white counterparts.
Researchers trained kindergarten teachers in 98 school districts across the United States to administer the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a measure of children's physical, social, emotional and language development. The assessment was administered to more than 185,000 kindergarteners from 2010 to 2017. (ScienceDaily)
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EARLY CHILDCARE & EDUCATION
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Study: Day care centers are very low risk for COVID transmissions |
Children in day-care programs present virtually no risk of transmitting Covid-19 to adults, according to a new Yale University study of more than 57,000 U.S. child-care providers.
The study, believed to be the largest of its kind, indicated that keeping child-care centers open doesn’t contribute to transmission of the disease caused by the new coronavirus, as long as they hew to sanitary guidelines like hand washing, small group sizes and staff wearing face coverings. (Wall St Journal)
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Dual Language Learner pilot study reveals significant challenges
First 5 California released a new brief by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) as part of the $20 million initiative to promote high‑quality early learning environments for children learning more than one language.
The brief summarizes findings from a survey of directors in early learning programs across California, and highlights multiple approaches for supporting dual language learners (DLLs), challenges encountered by administrators, and implications for serving DLLs as the early learning and care system recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. (Business Wire)
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Teacher turns bus into mobile classroom for families in need
An elementary school teacher in Florida saw firsthand how tough e-learning was for both students and parents this spring, so she decided to take a leap of faith, leave her day job, and hit the road as a personal tutor in her newly transformed mobile classroom.
She used her personal savings to purchase a bus and transform it into a classroom on wheels. Her hope is to serve families in who need a little extra support with remote learning and close any learning or connectivity gaps a family might be dealing with. (Fox 8)
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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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