“Growing up, I was always the smallest child in the class. Not only was I short, but I was also thin, sometimes surprisingly so. Doctors were always scaring my parents by telling them that I was falling behind the “normal” growth chart and encouraging them to make me eat more.”
Food allergies are common, and can be life-threatening. When introducing new foods to infants, many believed that delaying the exposure of certain foods may protect infants from allergic reactions, but more recent research points to the opposite.
The water crisis in Flint, Michigan garnered national attention, but there are thousands of cities in the US with even higher levels of lead poisoning. Despite knowing lead is harmful, we still don’t know how lead causes such harmful health outcomes. Identifying potential biological pathways is key for developing interventions to mitigate health risk.
The early childhood period shapes future health and well-being; young children depend on their caregivers to survive. The child-serving ecosystem is a broad network of individuals and systems affecting young children and caregivers. We review the role of relational health in this ecosystem.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is another hidden pandemic that deserves our attention: More than 140,000 children in the US have experienced the loss of a primary parent or caregiver from COVID-19.
From rewriting rules to enabling others to succeed, Tonya Allen thinks leadership is not about an individual person doing a great thing but about an environment where everyone wins. In Detroit and now Minneapolis, Allen keeps putting herself out there so that entire communities can thrive.