9.6: Childhood Health
Childhood is a pivotal time for growth and development. Most of us can remember experiences during childhood that shaped who we are as adults. Many of the health beliefs and behaviors that we have as adults were first introduced during those early years, and often conditions that begin during childhood (like obesity) tend to persist into adulthood.
Childhood can be characterized in different developmental stages, but is generally considered to be after infancy (above 1 year old) and prior to puberty and the teen years. The term “child” might be considered in some research to be only between 1-9 years (Seabert et al., 2021), or separated between toddlerhood (2-5) years and elementary school ages (6-11). By other definitions it includes everyone up to 14 years old, since after this age is typically considered adolescence. In this section, we’ll go over the leading health issues for American children between the ages of 1-14. We’ll also examine one of the simplest and perhaps most comprehensive ways to improve childhood health: through the public school system.
As of 2022, the National Center for Health Statistics reports that 1.5% of children under 4 and 2.2% of children between the ages of 5-11 are in fair or poor health. Additionally, 8% of elementary school-aged children missed 11+ days of the school year due to an illness, injury, or disability (CDC/National Center for Health Statistics, 2024b). Although it might seem like this indicates that the majority of children in the U.S. are healthy, there are also significant health risks that affect this country’s children more than those of other similar economically developed countries.