Home Visits Help New Parents Overcome Tough Histories, Raise Healthy Children

Seated at a kitchen table in a cramped apartment, Rosendo Gil asked the young parents sitting across from him what they should do if their daughter caught a cold. Blas Lopez, 29, and his fiancee, Lluvia Padilla, 28, quickly answered: Check her temperature and call the doctor if she has a fever they can’t control. I’m very proud of both of you knowing what to do, Gil said, as 3-year-old Leilanie Lopez played with a pretend kitchen nearby. Padilla recalled that when Leilanie was born, they would not have known the answer. We were asking question after question after question, she said.