“Call them rules or call them limits, good ones, I believe, have this in common: they serve reasonable purposes; they are practical and within a child’s capability; they are consistent; and they are an expression of loving concern.” ~~ Fred Rogers, of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood
The Raised with Love and Limits Foundation supports the new public health movement of preventing toxic stress in children’s lives to improve their health, learning and behavior by helping parents and caregivers manage children’s common behavioral issues through evidence-based strategies that develop consistent, caring, supportive and protective relationships with children.
Behavioral science research tells us that up to 45 percent of all children experience non-normative trauma before age of 5. This statistic is not only unacceptable, but we also believe the science that tells us it’s preventable.
The increased stress levels produce high levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, that becomes toxic to the body. A child’s developing brain is critically affected with the greatest damage being to the executive or reasoning part of at the brain. As a result, the traumatized child grows up being unable to control impulses, focus on tasks, moderate emotions, and function in school.
SO…why a Foundation for this mission above? Because every 7 seconds a child is born, and currently up to 45% of those children are likely to experience toxic stress from experiencing trauma that will jeopardize their health and well-being from their first breath to the end of their shortened lives.
We started the Foundation to do something to change that alarming statistic. Parent skill-building is who we are and what we have been about for the past 40 years…and will always be. And you can help! Because toxic stress in children is built into children by the adults in their world, then those adults are the most important change agents in eliminating toxic stress. If every parent, grandparent, daycare worker, teacher, and principal developed a mindset of actively caring for children, not only could we see a reduction of violence but also reduced physical and emotional problems in children and in the adults of the future.
Our flagship initiative, Behavior Checker™, makes healthy parent skill-building a systematic, effective, integrated part of a pediatric practice through phone triage and office visits, providing access to over 40 evidence-based solutions to common childhood behavior issues. As part of the electronic medical records, patients can access these solutions in their after-visit summaries, email and in their children’s charts. Behavior Checker also includes in-depth education for nurses, helping them understand the relationship of childhood adverse experiences (ACEs) to toxic stress, neurological development, and long-term physical and mental health outcomes.