Dr. Colleen Kraft:

So, I visited the shelter in April of 2018. And the first room we visited was the toddler room.

And we walked in, and the shelter is equipped with toys and books and cribs and blankets and has a homey feel to it. But the children were really remarkable when we walked in there. When you normally walk into a room with toddlers, they are loud and rambunctious and playing and moving around.

And these children were eerily quiet, except for one little child, who was crying and sobbing and inconsolable in the middle of the room. Next to her was one of the shelter workers who was trying to give her a toy or trying to give her a book, and this child wasn't responding.

The staff wasn't allowed to pick them up or touch them or console them. And, as an observer and a pediatrician, I felt totally helpless, because I know that child needed her mother, and I knew that all of those children need their mothers.

When you have toddlers who are not interacting with other toddlers and just quiet and looking at you, that is just as abnormal as that child who is crying and wailing.