Consequences of Stress
on Children’s Development
As a young child, life
was nothing but stressful for me and my six brothers and sisters. My mother was a victim of a vicious cycle of
alcohol abuse and violence, stemming from her parents. My mother had seven children at the age of
twenty-one by three different fathers who were only fathers in the sense of the
word. She did not know how to take care
of us. As a young child between the ages
of three to nine years-old I only remember being cold, afraid, homeless, and
hungry. I was a failure to strive child
who developed slowly. The year that the state
took us from our mother and placed us in foster care, I went to three different
schools in one year. I would sneak out
of the school building with a group of neighborhood kids and walk to the
Lincoln Park Zoo/Beach (Chicago) where we would eat half-eaten food out of the
garbage cans; I was seven years old.
School was sad for me, I did poorly in every subject and had profound
behavior problems; I did not realize I could read until I was blessed to be
placed in a positive- loving foster care home; which saved my life. This is why I chose to write about the hunger.
Child Hunger in Asia
“One third of families in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are regularly going to bed hungry due to soaring food prices in a region which accounts for half the world's underweight children”. “Half of the children in India, Asia's third largest economy, are stunted because of hunger. Child malnutrition is an underlying cause of death for 2.6 million children yearly- with most of them dying from preventable illnesses like diarrhea due to weak immune systems”.
“Those who to survive, grow up without enough energy, protein,
“South Asia, which also includes Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal, is locked into a vicious cycle of stunting that passes from generation to generation, the report says. A quarter of children in this region are born with low birth weights of less than 2.5 kg - which is a powerful predictor of stunting - compared to 12 percent in sub-Saharan Africa”.
Bhalla, N. (2012, February 19). A Shocking Number of
Asiian Children go to Bed Hungry. Retrieved from Reuter: http:
in.reuters.com/article/1012/02/19/hunger-sasia
Thank you for sharing your past. Stories like this are why I have a hard time saying that my family was in poverty. While my family's income level was well poverty line, I know there are many other children who had things a lot more difficult than myself. I commend you on overcoming your past and succeeding in your education. Your story is a prime example of what a loving and nurturing environment can provide for a child.
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