“If that poverty affects the stress level of the parents, that’s going to be felt by the children,” he said. “People are actually wearing out years earlier because their homeostasis, their thermometer, was ramped up too high because of early childhood adversity.”

It might seem babies and toddlers are too young and won’t remember their early impoverished years, but the impacts get stored in the body, Lockridge said. “Whether or not a child is cognitively aware of what is going on, their body keeps score.”

Bobbie Allison said she doesn’t feel good about the life that she is providing for her children, but she doesn’t know what more she can do. She hopes to figure out a job with Foster Farms in the area, get her children into Head Start, and begin to get ahead.