Ever spend time with newborn babies and wonder what the future holds for them? Ever gaze into their eyes thinking “is this the next Bill Gates or the next Jackie Robinson?” I personally like to think of infants as unformed clay ready to be molded into greatness. Their potential could be limitless if given the opportunity, but the problem therein lies in the obstacles strewn in their paths inhibiting their progress.
Early in my career I had the distinct pleasure or misfortune, depending upon your point of view, to be verbally assaulted by a 3-year-old. I was working at a community health center at the time and was pretty naive about the inner workings of urban family medicine. This particular child was brought to the office by his grandmother for some behavioral concerns. During the examination, the child apparently became annoyed with me and yelled out, “get your hands off me, -itch!” After getting over my initial shock, I started to think how this kid’s vocabulary was quite advanced for his age. Even though he spoke inappropriate words, the ability to string together a five word sentence was a huge accomplishment for a child that young.
The child’s mother later came up to the office to apologize and to say that she did not know where he could have learned such words and sexually provocative innuendos. Her response and reaction were common. Maybe she honestly did not realize the rap music blaring in the car, the rated R movies shown on the family television, or the people who spoke adult conversations in the child’s presence were affecting his development.
No matter how fancy your oven or kitchen utensils are, your cake is only as good as the ingredients you place in it! Children are no different. From infancy till the dirt has splattered across our coffins, we humans are affected by what is in us and around us. We cannot truly believe that the words and images spoken to our children via conversation, music, videos, and photographs will not affect their development one day.
Even prior to conception, we adults have a responsibility to our children. The first and most important responsibility in my opinion is sexual maturity. Intercourse between two consensual adults is a private matter and is none of our business. However, my concern is when these decisions are made without reflection upon the consequences. Unprotected intercourse is the process for conceiving no matter how patients try to say it is not! Simply put, if you are not ready to parent, use birth control or abstain. Children brought into this world deserve your full, undivided attention.
For the most part, healthy babies come from healthy parents. Therefore, if a mother is using street drugs or certain prescribed medications during conception and pregnancy, this could affect her baby and cause numerous problems including birth defects and death. As a result, it is always best to discuss these situations with your doctor prior to conceiving to reduce the risk of unwanted problems. Furthermore, tobacco and alcohol use, depression, and being the victim of domestic violence are all risk factors for poor outcomes in pregnancy.
Once this precious creature is born an even greater task is thrust upon parents, ensuring every basic need is met, like food, shelter, and safety. Infants are totally dependent upon their parents. So if parents lack the resources to provide housing and nutrition, proper development cannot occur. I’ve had experiences where parents have diluted the formula to make it stretch or simply could not read and therefore did not understand the preparation instructions. The brain needs those nutrients more than ever during this phase of development and cannot withstand such nutritional insults for long periods of time.
As our children grow and develop, the types of food choices with which we expose them will determine the choices they make as they age. If pizza pockets and fast foods are the hallmarks of their meals, we can only expect obesity and high blood pressure issues to ensue. Per the CDC, in 2012, more than a third of children were either overweight or obese. Though lack of exercise is a huge problem for our children, the quality of the food is also a major contributor to the epidemic.
Lastly, there have been so many social ills that have bombarded the news recently – such as poor education, violence, poverty and the list could go on and on. Hopefully, we now see these situations are beyond out of control and if we do not intervene higher up the chain we will continue to reap the same awful results. In my opinion, let’s get back to basics. Let’s ensure our children’s needs are met and let’s assist parents who obviously need our help!
Yours in Service,
Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D.
Assistant Professor
SLUCare Family Medicine
yourhealthmatters@stlamerican.com
