Our Children in Crisis

Our children are in crisis and the number one reason for this is mass misinformation permeating our society from the media and the profit-driven medical, food, and chemical industries. The problems outlined below can be significantly reduced or eliminated by providing quality education to parents and children's health professionals.

Most U.S. Children Do Not Receive Adequate Breastfeeding for Optimal Growth and Healthy Development

No one will argue that breastmilk is essential to provide complete nutrition for healthy growth and development of infants. Long-term breastfeeding (2 or more years) ensures that babies' brains and immune systems will develop optimally. The WHO states in their global public health recommendation that "infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health. Thereafter, to meet their evolving nutritional requirements, infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods while breastfeeding continues for up to two years of age or beyond." (World Health Organization 2003)

Sadly, statistics from 1998 show that only 64% of women in the United States were breastfeeding in early postpartum, either exclusively or in combination with formula feeding; only 29% of mothers were nursing at 6 months and only 16% at one year. Many of these mothers were supplementing with formula. Only 9.5% of infants in the U.S. were exclusively breastfeeding at 6 months of age. (NHNES 2002)

Exclusive, long-term breastfeeding rates can be changed through mass education and support for parents and health professionals. The HPA educates health professionals in the innumerable benefits of breastfeeding and helps them to provide support for mothers in exclusive, long-term breastfeeding. We provide them with parent resources, such as La Leche League, Families for Natural Living, and other community parenting groups, so mothers can receive the support they need to maintain a positive breastfeeding experience. We provide education and support to parents through our website with our breastfeeding article library and parent education forums. Our breastfeeding education coordinators are available to provide support, information, and La Leche League referrals to parents when they request help.

More Children are Overweight and At-Risk for Chronic Disease

The Surgeon General states that overweight and obesity have reached nationwide epidemic proportions in the U.S. In 1999, an estimated 61 percent of U.S. adults were overweight or obese, and 13 percent of children and adolescents were overweight. Today there are nearly twice as many overweight children and almost three times as many overweight adolescents as there were in 1980. Approximately 300,000 deaths a year in this country are currently associated with overweight and obesity. Excessive weight is a risk factor for heart disease, diabetes, several forms of cancer, and many other chronic health problems. Type 2 diabetes, formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is now diagnosed in record numbers among children. (USDHHS, 2001)

Overweight kids are likely to suffer from social stigmatization, discrimination, poor body image, low self-esteem, and depression.

Most of the food we find in a typical grocery store is processed with ingredients that compromise our children's health. Take a walk down the aisles of a typical U.S. grocery store and look for wholesome foods. You will realize that it's difficult to find anything other than processed, pesticide-sprayed, or factory-farmed foods. Much of the food is irradiated and genetically modified. These foods are major contributing factors to many chronic diseases, including obesity, that are plaguing our children.

Children have become TV advertising targets for processed foods and fast food restaurants. These ads are specifically designed to encourage the consumption of highly processed, sugar-laden, junk food that is addictive and hormonally disruptive to children's bodies.

Fortunately, the growing epidemic of overweight, obese children headed for serious chronic diseases can be reversed with proper nutrition, wholesome foods and regular exercise. The HPA provides high-quality nutritional education to parents and practitioners through our website and training. Our nutrition advisors are leading, trusted experts and our article library contains the most up-to-date, highly researched and valid nutritional information that can be found anywhere. Our health professional members receive the most recent and valid research on nutrition, and parents can get expert nutrition advice through our newsletter and educational forums. Mass education to parents (consumers) will change the consumer-driven sales and marketing of unhealthy processed food.

Targeting Our Children with Toxic Drugs, Vaccines and Products

Unwarranted fear of disease spawned by the medical industry and popular media is compelling parents to have their children injected with an ever-increasing number of risky, toxic vaccines. Some children react immediately to vaccines with the heartbreaking consequence of brain damage or death. Most children seem to handle this toxic assault to their immune and nervous systems, but doctors and researchers are becoming more aware of the subtle, long-term damage to children's immunity, mental capacity and overall health as a result of vaccines.

Doctors are not following informed consent laws when it comes to childhood vaccinations. Many parents are coerced by their doctors into vaccinating their children without being informed of all the possible risks. Doctors are providing parents with misinformation from government agencies riddled with conflict of interest because of their close ties to the vaccine industry.

Unsafe and dangerous pharmaceutical drugs are marketed to pediatricians who may prescribe them to children despite their adverse effects on children's developing brains and small bodies. Television commercials and magazine ads that promote drugs to parents increase our tolerance for questionably safe practices and foster a casual attitude to potentially toxic drugs.

Antibiotics are excessively prescribed, especially to children. The Center for Disease Control estimates that of the 235 million doses of antibiotics given each year, between 20 and 50 percent are unnecessary. This overuse of antibiotics can cause devastating health consequences to children, including destruction of beneficial bacteria, antibiotic resistance, and increased infections.

The HPA empowers pediatricians and other health professionals to become more effective and more confident children's health providers without the use of harmful drugs. We train health professionals to provide treatment options that support children's natural healing capacity. We focus on the safe resolution of illness by integrating treatments that utilize natural methods to stimulate healing, recover balance, and support the body's own resilience.

Parents need to find exceptional doctors and practitioners, educational resources, and support networks, and to obtain comprehensive information about vaccines and other drugs. The HPA provides a searchable directory of health professionals so parents can search for a specific type of practitioner in their local area. Our article library contains many articles on vaccine awareness and safety. Education coordinators are available through HPA forums to address individual concerns and get parents to the support and information they need.

Toxic Chemicals Permeate Our Children's Environment

Toxic chemicals in cleaning and hygiene products, fragrances, pesticides, flame retardants, and heavy metals known to cause cancer, immune or neurological damage pervade our children's lives on every level. Children are more sensitive to these dangerous substances because of their size and body weight. Early childhood is a time for amazing development of the brain and nervous system. Toxic interference can adversely affect a child's potential for a successful, healthy life. Both one-time chemical poisonings and low-level chronic exposures can interfere with our children's delicate developmental processes with dire, lifelong consequences.

Fortunately, there are healthy alternatives for almost all toxic products, but most parents do not know about these alternatives. They first need to know how their children are being exposed so they can reduce exposure and find non-toxic alternatives that work. They need to know how to clear the toxic metals and chemicals out of their children's bodies and how to heal the damage already done. The HPA provides this education and support through our website via parent forums, articles and environmental education coordinators.

Most Babies Born In This Country Begin Their Lives With Stressful Hospital Births

Birth is a healthy, normal process. Medical procedures and drugs can complicate birth and greatly affect the mother and baby. What happens during birth may affect a child's entire life. Despite plenty of scientific evidence proving that natural, normal home birth carries far less risk than medical intervention in birth for the vast majority of mothers and babies, only 7 percent of all births in the U.S. are attended by midwives. (Arms)

The U.S. has the highest cesarean rate in the "developed" world, the highest percentage of prematurely born and low-birth-weight babies, and among the highest rate of infant mortality. It is sad that women in the U.S. today are more afraid of birth than ever before and fewer than 10 percent of women experience a straightforward, normal, natural birth. (Arms, 1999)

The HPA is building a network of resources that educate parents about natural birth options. We provide natural birth information through our website via parent forums and articles.

The Majority of U.S. Infants Do Not Receive Adequate Emotional Bonding

Attachment Parenting is a philosophy based on the practice of nurturing parenting methods that create strong emotional bonds, also known as secure attachment, between the infant and parent(s). This style of parenting encourages responsiveness to the infant or child's emotional needs, and develops trust that their emotional needs will be met. As a result, this strong attachment helps the child develop secure, empathic, peaceful, and enduring relationships. (API 2004)

Nothing is more important in the world today than the nurturing that children receive in the first three years of life, for it is in these earliest years that the capacities for trust, empathy, and affection originate. If the emotional needs of the child are not met during these years, permanent emotional damage can result. (Barker 1987)

The critical bonding and attachment needs of infants are not being met for many babies in this society. Bonding and attachment represent crucial elements for proper brain development and emotional security. Early stressful experiences may result in decreased ability to handle stressful experiences later in life. (Commons 1998, Powell) Many psychologists and child advocates believe that fulfilling a baby's needs for bonding and attachment may prevent later depression, aggression, addiction and suicide and provides an important key to creating a happy, peaceful world.

A major obstacle to adequate nurturing in the first few years is the lack of information and preparation in nurturing parenting practices. The HPA has brought together the best, most knowledgeable, attachment parenting experts to provide information and support to parents. We are aligned with natural parenting community groups that form support networks throughout the U.S. to make sure that no parent is left without the crucial peer support that is needed to provide the proper nurturing and bonding to their baby. Our website is also a major resource for information and support through parent forums, articles, and the HPA Holistic Parenting newsletter.

Autism, ADD, Allergies and Asthma is Affecting Unprecedented Numbers of Children

The unprecedented increase in autism in California and many other areas of the country has been well-documented and is not an artifact created by misclassification and criteria changes, according to several statewide epidemiological studies. (MIND Institute 2004)

According to the U.S. Department of Education Statistics on Autism, there has been a 435 percent increase from the years 1992-1993 to 1999-2000 in numbers of children aged 6-21 served by IDEA (Individuals With Disabilities Discrimination Act) who have autism. In round terms, for every two children registered through IDEA with autism in 1992-93, there were almost eleven by 1999-2000. (USDESA)

Allergies affect about 38 percent of all Americans, and about five percent of the US population has asthma. The highest proportion of asthma is among children aged five to 14, a total of five million children. Childhood asthma has increased by more than 40% since 1980.

ADHD is the most common psychiatric condition that affects children. Estimates in prevalence in childhood range from 5 - 10 percent. (AHCPR) It is estimated that ADHD occurs in as many as 3.5 million children. No one really knows the exact number.

These are all preventable conditions and can be successfully treated. Holistic medical care offers both curative and preventive treatment for childhood allergies, asthma, and ADHD. Even autism is now being alleviated or reversed with the proper medical attention of holistic doctors. With quality education and highly trained health professionals, we can turn the tide on these chronic problems and end the suffering of these children.

References

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References:

(AHCPR) Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, MD.Diagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Summary, Technical Review: Number 3, August 1999. http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/epcsums/adhdsutr.htm

API 2004: Attachment Parenting International website
http://www.attachmentparenting.org/about.shtml

Arms, Suzanne 1999: All About Birth, Birthing the Future http://www.birthingthefuture.com/AllAboutBirth/index.php#birthtoday

Arms, Suzanne: Evidence of the Safety and Efficacy of the Midwifery Model of Care and Midwife-Attended Home Birth as a Model for Normalcy

Barker, E. M.D. 1987: The Critical Importance of Mothering
http://www.naturalchild.com/elliott_barker/mothering.html

Elliott Barker, M.D., D. Psych, F.R.C.P. (C), is the Director of the Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Editor of the journal Empathic Parenting.

Commons, M L and Miller, PM 1998: Emotional Learning in Infants: A Cross-Cultural Examination, Harvard Medical School, paper presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Philadelphia, PA, February, 1998.
http://www.naturalchild.com/research/emotional_learning_infants.html

MIND Institute 2004: M.I.N.D. Institute Study Confirms Autism Increase
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/news/MINDepi_study.html

NHNES 2002: Prevalence of Exclusive Breastfeeding Among US Infants: the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, American Journal of Public Health July 2002, Vol. 92, No. 7.

National Center for Health Statistics 1999-2000: Prevalence of Overweight Among Children and Adolescents: United States
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/overwght99.htm

Powell, A: Harvard Researchers Say Children Need Touching and Attention
http://www.naturalchild.com/research/harvard_attention.html

US Department of Education Statistics On Autism
http://www.americanchiropractic.net/autism/Autism%20statistics,%20US%20dept%20pf%20ed.pdf

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2001: The Surgeon General's call to action to prevent and decrease overweight and obesity. [Rockville, MD]: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office of the Surgeon General; [2001]. Available from: US GPO, Washington.

World Health Organization 2003: Global strategy for infant and young child feeding.
http://www.who.int/nut/documents/gs_infant_feeding_text_eng.pdf