Promoting Cross Collaborative Research Efforts and Implications for Excellence in Practice The Michigan Infant/Toddler Research Exchange (MITRE) is comprised of researchers from Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, and the University of Michigan whose research focuses on infants, toddlers, their families and caregivers. MITRE faculty reflect diverse disciplinary backgrounds in…

There is a significant need for effective, evidence-based and practice-informed interventions to support parenting among high risk, overburdened families, and programs that focus both on enhancing sensitive parenting as well as improving parent mental health have a substantial potential for positive impact on a broad range of outcomes, including parental, child and family system functioning. …

Over the past decade advances in developmental biology have provided considerable evidence linking early adversity to negative outcomes.  Children living in poverty face substantially increased risk of early adversity. Stressful environments characterized by elevated levels of chronic environmental and caregiving stressors in the context of poverty can disrupt brain architecture and exacerbate underlying genetic vulnerabilities…

A collaborative project to validate and sustain IMH-HV as an evidence-based practice for improving infant, toddler and maternal well-being. The Challenge.  Recent state and federal legislation now require home visiting programs to meet evidence-based practice standards. Infant Mental Health Home Visiting (IMH-HV) is designated as a promising practice, meaning studies have suggested its efficacy of improving…

Text4baby is the largest mobile health initiative in the nation and is designed to promote maternal and child health. Women who text “BABY” (or “BEBE” for Spanish) to 511411 receive three free text messages a week, timed to their due date or their baby’s birth date, through pregnancy and up until the baby’s first birthday.…

As an IMH clinician providing home-based therapy services, I recently had the privilege of building a strong therapeutic relationship with an amazing woman who was able to make remarkably courageous decisions for her family. This is our story. (Identifying information has been changed to protect the family.) Sarah is a 20-year-old mother of a 17-month-old…

Question: I am a professional and a married mom with two wonderful boys, ages 3 and 1. The 3-year-old struggles with severe separation anxiety every time I go to work. He wants me to be the person who does everything for him. He throws a fit if his father or grandmother diapers him or helps him dress.…

When I trained at Fraiberg’s Child Development Project in the late ‘70s, it was easy to imagine that there was one model of infant parent psychotherapy to be learned and mastered. Training was naturally an integral part of our work since the entire field of infant mental health was a new development. Much has changed in infant mental…

“Nurturing Children and Families: Building on the Legacy of T. Berry Brazelton,” edited by Barry M. Lester and Joshua D. Sparrow, invites readers to reflect on and celebrate the remarkable contributions that T. Berry Brazelton has made to the advance of science and the nurturing of infants, children and their families. The book introduces us…