Essential Questions

A recent report in Academic Pediatrics found that, "Promoting the health of young children, before five years of age, could save society up to $65 billion in future health care costs." The study examined four health factors: early life tobacco exposure, unintentional injury, obesity and mental health.

Why before age 5?
There are several reasons that the first five years constitute the most opportune time for promoting life-long health.

1. Environmental factors have life-long effects. A growing body of literature suggests that maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with "increased activity, decreased attention, and diminished intellectual abilities" in children.
2. Parental supervision lowers risks. All kids have slips, trips and falls growing up. The supervision that parents can and should provide reduces the risk of major injury or fatality. For example, putting gates at the top and bottom of stairs prevents crawlers or early walkers from tumbling down the stairs.
3. Routines, habits and "normal" are define in early childhood. A child learns to eat from her parents. She learns what to eat and when to eat from the direction of her parents. Those norms and routines of eating and activity can set a child on a life-long trajectory of obesity, or of health.
4. Children develop emotional stability during these critical years. During the early years of life, experiencing affection and nurture is critical for healthy development. In order to explore, learn and take appropriate risks, a child needs the support and love of adults.

The report does not touch on parental use of language, which is closely tied to language development, which is foundational for other areas of development.

"[Betty] Hart and [Todd] Risley were able to demonstrate strong correlations between the amount and kind of language that children heard in infancy and their IQs and abilities in later childhood. They found that a child's experience of language mattered more than socio-economic status, more than race, more than anything else they measured." (Whatever it Takes p43, emphasis mine)

Why parents?
Parents are responsible for the nurture, health and education of their children. We recognize this as a society by requiring parental consent for enrollment in child care services, mandating parental consent for medical treatment of a child, and permitting parents to educate their children at home, in public schools, or in private or parochial schools. Consequently, any public health initiative aimed at promoting health between birth and age five must engage those primarily responsible: the parents. The social cost of not treating parents as responsible is far greater than the $65 billion in lifetime health costs for their children.