Abstract
The American Academy of Nursing has identified toxic stress in childhood as a health
policy concern of high priority. Adult diseases (e.g., obesity, diabetes, hypertension
and cardiovascular disease) should be viewed as developmental disorders that begin
early in life that could be reduced with the alleviation of toxic stress in childhood.
The provision of human milk/breastfeeding is an evidence-based intervention that may
hold the greatest potential to mitigate the effects of toxic stress from the moment
of birth. Assisting families to make an informed choice to initiate and continue breastfeeding
from birth has the potential to address both the disparity in the quality of nutrition
provided infants and the economic stress experienced by families who purchase formula.
The Expert Panel on Breastfeeding endorses initiatives to improve the initiation,
duration, and exclusivity of breastfeeding to mitigate the effects of toxic stress
in this call to action for research to build the evidence to support these critical
relationships.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 13, 2016
Accepted:
July 4,
2016
Received in revised form:
June 30,
2016
Received:
July 15,
2015
Footnotes
Conflicts of Interest: The authors do not hold any conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
