9.6.2: Health Concerns for Children

Children are dependent on parents, guardians, teachers, and caregivers to provide safe environments that meet their physical and emotional needs, allowing them to grow and mature. This includes not only providing for physiological needs such as food, water, clothing, and sleep, but also emotional stability, comfort, physical safety, and intellectual stimulation, along with developmentally appropriate education. Certainly no parents or caregivers are “perfect”, and there are a wide array of parenting styles which can promote healthy growth and behaviors. The most important thing is to protect children from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), which can have a substantial impact on their current and future health and well-being, as well as that of future generations.

Child maltreatment includes neglect and abuse of any form (physical, sexual, psychological). Failing to provide children with food, water, clothing, medicine, and supervision are considered child neglect. Emotional and verbal neglect and abuse often go unnoticed, yet can cause significant psychological damage to children. All of these forms of maltreatment qualify as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and have both acute and long term impacts on children. Maltreatment can be committed by parents or caregivers, or another person supervising the child such as a teacher or clergy member. Beyond the immediate potential harm from bruises, cuts, burns, or broken bones, children who have experienced ACEs tend to have maladaptive coping mechanisms, harmful behaviors towards others (such as bullying), and engage in more health-risk behaviors such as drug use, dangerous driving, and risky sexual behavior. They are at higher risk for health problems like sexually-transmitted infections, cancers, obesity, and early death from all causes. Adults who have experienced neglect and abuse during childhood can have post-traumatic stress disorder, attention and learning difficulties, and it can affect their academic and employment/economic prospects. They may also be more likely to commit acts of abuse or neglect on their own children. Nationally, it is estimated that at least 1 in 7 children experience abuse or neglect in the past year (CDC, 2024b, Seabert et al., 2021).

Children should also get routine vaccinations in order to prevent deadly infectious diseases. Thanks to programs like Vaccines for Children providing free immunizations to poor, uninsured and underinsured children, the availability of vaccines is quite high in the U.S. However, misinformation in recent years has caused some parents to avoid or delay vaccination, thus decreasing population immunity and increasing the risk of outbreaks - even in vaccinated children (Seabert et al., 2021). See chapters 3, 5, and 7 of this text for more on vaccines and vaccine hesitancy.

Childhood obesity is also a growing problem. While the rates of childhood obesity are certainly lower than adult obesity, nearly 1 out of every 5 children in the U.S. has obesity. Obesity in children and adolescents is determined by comparing body mass index (BMI) to normative values (referencing them to other children/teens) for their age and gender. A child or teen with a BMI above the 95th percentile is considered to have obesity. Due to the nonlinear pattern of growth during childhood and adolescence, it is typical that children will go through phases where they have more or less body fat on them - and this may be essential for growth spurts. However, too much body fat increases the risk for obesity and chronic diseases during adulthood, and impacts the quality of life of children. Kids with obesity may not be comfortable participating in physical activity, they are at a higher risk for asthma, sleep apnea and bone and joint problems, they may face stigma at school, and their mental and emotional health can suffer (CDC, 2024c).