Children’s HealthWatch was born out of concerns that policies like the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reauthorization Act (PRWORA) of 1996, the so-called “welfare reform” law, instead of improving public health or the standard of living, could cause great harm to the health and well-being of young children and their families. The pediatricians, child development […]
Originally published on HealthDay MONDAY, Sept. 3, 2018 (HealthDay News) — Homelessness threatens young children’s health, even if it occurs while they’re still in the womb, a new study shows. “These findings back up what we already knew about how the stress of homelessness affects children’s heath, but this helps us determine which children are […]
Originally posted on News Medical Experiencing homelessness at any time during the pre- or postnatal period can negatively affect a young child’s health. Researchers at Children’s HealthWatch, based out of Boston Medical Center (BMC), found that children who experienced both pre- and post-natal homelessness and those who experienced homelessness for longer than six months were […]
Dear Members of the 2018 Farm Bill Conference Committee, As pediatricians and public health researchers, we seek to inform your deliberations on the 2018 Farm Bill by summarizing the most current medical research regarding health benefits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Based on our 20 years of research and clinical experience with the […]
Originally posted on NPR. Michael Doody remembers some things about his Columbus, Ohio neighborhood in the 1990s: “Gunshots, helicopters, thefts, smashed out windows, burglaries, robberies, assaults and murders.” In addition to the crime, roughly 50 percent of the children were living in poverty in this area, known as Southern Orchards. During the mid-20th century, construction […]
When Children’s HealthWatch started 20 years ago in 1998, we had a passionate mission: to measure the impact of the “new” policies, namely welfare reform, and their impact on the health and development of young children and their families. So, equipped with paper surveys we created, we began talking with families of young children across […]
Dear Senate President Spilka and Speaker Deleo, Children’s HealthWatch commends the state Legislature for its efforts to repeal the Temporary Assistance for Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) family cap. Children’s Healthwatch’s network of pediatricians, public health researchers, and child health policy experts seeks to improve the health and well-being of young children by informing policies […]
In Food Research and Action Center‘s Summer issue of ResearchWire, Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba and Richard Sheward write about a new Children’s HealthWatch study which is the first to provide evidence that household food insecurity is associated with increased costs for infant hospitalizations and with increased number and longer duration of hospital stays. This study will […]