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Why We Think Babies

It’s time to make the potential of every baby a national priority. See what families across the country say they need to thrive and share your story. What would you want our elected leaders to know about raising babies and toddlers today or the challenges of providing families with young children the support they need?

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Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health

“By promoting the social-emotional health of infants and young children, we have the potential to positively impact the trajectory of a child’s life.”

– Kerrie Schnake (SC)

Kerrie has always been drawn to the way babies experience the world as a brand-new place. For babies, everything is worthy of exploration, a new and interesting discovery. Today, Kerrie has dedicated her work to promoting healthy social-emotional development for infants, toddlers and their families, or infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH). As director of the South Carolina Program for Infants/Toddler Care, she guides the state’s efforts to build understanding of IECMH among professionals who work with children and families. She also leads efforts to strengthen South Carolina’s IECMH workforce. Kerrie knows that the better community members understand IECMH, the better we can prepare young children for a healthy future.

Early Head Start

“Early Head Start has been a blessing to me as a young, working mother trying to get back into college.”

– Kaylah Dessausure (DE)

On a shoestring budget and without much family support, Kaylah worried about how to give her baby, Kodah, the best start in life. Kaylah’s local Early Head Start program was able to connect her with a variety of community resources, helping her meet Kodah’s nutrition and medical care needs. She was also offered child care through Early Head Start, that provided Kodah with rich opportunities for healthy social and emotional development while she worked. Early Head Start provided Kaylah with the comprehensive support she needed to give Kodah a strong start.

Early Head Start

“Early Head Start supported our whole family as we adjusted to life with our adopted son.”

– Francesco Luparello (CA)

Francesco and Rick adopted their son, Christopher, after caring for him as foster parents. As first-time parents, they found it challenging to manage the needs of an infant with profound special needs, family visits, and a heavy schedule of doctor appointments. Thankfully, their family had access to weekly, in-home early intervention services and the support of an Early Head Start home visitor, ensuring that Christopher achieved key developmental milestones. Francesco and Rick are grateful for these early services that gave Christopher the opportunity to develop and thrive, overcoming many of the extreme barriers he faced at birth that may have resulted in lifelong challenges.

Child Care

“Affordable child care programs are important for working single mothers. “

– Taria Wolfe (NE)

As a single mother, Taria depends on high quality, affordable child care programs for her young children as she works to support their family. However, child care is hard to find in their rural area, and at one point, she was faced with traveling 30+ miles to find a quality child care center. In the end, a spot opened up at a small, local child care center. Taria counts herself lucky to find affordable, quality child care that was workable for her family. But working families like hers should not have to rely on luck to find and access the child care they and their babies need.

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