Toddlers starting at nursery after being at home since birth experience high levels of stress in the first weeks after separating from their mothers, and are still showing "chronic mild stress" as long as five months after their first day in the new environment, according to a study measuring hormone levels in young children.
Levels of the stress hormone cortisol doubled even in secure youngsters during the first nine days of childcare without their mothers present, compared with their normal level at home. The levels fell but were still significantly higher than for the same infants at home five months later, even though the children (aged between 11 and 20 months when they started nursery) by then appeared to have settled and no longer showed outward signs of distress.
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The article later mentions that there is no evidence that this stress harms children. I love that. The stress-relief industry has become big-time business; the entire civilized world seems to agree that stress causes emotional, psychological, and physical problems. But when it comes to this holy grail, the MSM quickly steps off.
