Pediatricians and Prevention of Toxic Stress

The Harvard Center on the Developing Child has produced a new video: "Building Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes: A Theory of Change." The video wisely identifies the need to support the adults in a child's life in order to promote long-term health, both physical and emotional. It points to the abundance of scientific evidence showing the need for providing safe and secure relationships in early childhood to reach these goals. Exposure to stress in the absence of such safe, secure relationships is termed "toxic stress."