Thread by @marvymuse

@AiasIRL @danielgjohnson @Amy_Siskind @maggieNYT @brianstelter Toddlers, according to Colleen Craft, MD, in NPR interview:
The first room I visited ws the Toddler room where there were toddlers who were very young anywhere from about 18 months-3 years of age.
And there was this one little girl who was just crying and sobbing and couldn't 1/

@AiasIRL @danielgjohnson @Amy_Siskind @maggieNYT @brianstelter 2/ be consoled on one of the mats in the center.
The staff were "by" her but they _weren't allowed to hold her or comfort her_ so she was just crying and wailing and her little arms and leg were just pounding. She was inconsolable. And we all knew why.

@AiasIRL @danielgjohnson @Amy_Siskind @maggieNYT @brianstelter 3/She had been taken from her mother and she wanted her mother.
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Thus begins the destruction of the youngest. Their brains are supposed to be growing, but instead, they are being damaged by toxic stress /mm

@AiasIRL @danielgjohnson @Amy_Siskind @maggieNYT @brianstelter 4/ Dr Kraft: Separation of parents and children result in something that we call "Toxic Stress" where those same chemicals, those "fight or flight" hormones, the inflammatory markers, the cortisol, remain high in these children.

@AiasIRL @danielgjohnson @Amy_Siskind @maggieNYT @brianstelter 5/Without that parent to help buffer that reaction, these chemicals go on to _destroy the architecture of that child's developing brain._ They destroy the synapses that result in that child's ability to love, to learn, to develop.

@AiasIRL @danielgjohnson @Amy_Siskind @maggieNYT @brianstelter 6/ So separation for even a short time is something that is toxic to a child's developing brain.

@AiasIRL @danielgjohnson @Amy_Siskind @maggieNYT @brianstelter Colleen A. _K_raft
The rest of her interview is here:
wnycstudios.org/story/the-take…
It's in mp3 and twitter doesn't handle mp3s