Objective: To gain insight into the extent of body mass index (BMI) change during an academic year for children with overweight or obesity at entry to an early learning programme with nutrition and physical activity components ("Head Start"). We explored whether meeting with families to discuss weight and nutrition and age of entry in…

Methods: Summative focus groups with teachers across three Head Start centers were conducted to explore teachers' attitudes toward the HH2H curriculum. The curriculum consisted of eight weekly nutrition lessons, interactive activities with puppets, taste tests, and physical activity set to music as a component of the Impact of a Preschool Obesity…

Background: Because healthy habits are established early in life, it is important to teach young children about foods that contribute to a healthy diet. One of the strategies recommended by the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines is to implement educational programs in community settings such as child care and preschool settings. Head Start is one such…

Children spend a considerable amount of time in preschools and child care centers. As a result, these settings may have an influence on their diet, weight, and food security, and are potentially important contexts for interventions to address nutritional health. The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is one such intervention. No national…

An extensive body of research demonstrates a higher prevalence of obesity among children with developmental delays (DD) versus children without delays. This analysis examined the effectiveness of a randomized controlled trial to promote healthy weight in a subsample of preschool-age children with DD (n = 71) on the adoption of quality nutrition…

Guided by the social cognitive theory, this randomized controlled trial tested the "Make a Move," a provider-led intervention for Head Start parents aimed to produce changes in the outcomes of knowledge, attitude, and behavior of physical activity and healthy eating. Participants were parents of children ages 3-5 years enrolled in a Head…

Cumulative risk theory suggests that a variety of social risk factors would have an additive effect on obesity risk. Multiple studies have suggested that obesity is related to basic resources such as transportation and financial resources. Additional research points to parental engagement and parental monitoring as additional sources of risk. This…

Background: Effective childhood obesity prevention programs for preschool children are limited in number and focus on changes in the child care environment rather than the home environment. Purpose: The purpose of this project was to develop and test the feasibility of a home environment obesity prevention program that incorporates mindful eating…

Partnering early childhood education and care (ECEC) and the home together may be more effective in combating obesogenic risk factors in preschool children. Thus, an evaluation of ECEC obesity prevention interventions with a parental component was conducted, exploring parental engagement and its effect on obesity and healthy lifestyle outcomes. A…

The aim of this paper was to compare the recruitment strategies of two recent studies that focused on the parental influences on childhood obesity during the preschool years. The first study was a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the Mind, Exercise, Nutrition?…?Do It! 2-4 obesity prevention programme and the second was a longitudinal cohort…

Early childhood educators currently provide content focused learning opportunities for children in the areas of well-being and environmental education. However, these are usually seen as discrete content areas and educators are challenged with responding to children's interests in popular-culture inspired food products given these influence their…

Garden-based lessons are gaining popularity as a means of increasing fruit and vegetable intake among children. The study objective was to pilot test a garden-based preschool curriculum for feasibility and acceptability in Harris County Department of Education Head Start using qualitative and quantitative methods. A total of 103, 3- to 5-year-old…

Although an abundant body of research demonstrates the need for quality health and physical education and reveals the innumerable benefits optimal health has on both physical and cognitive development, the number of preschools offering structured health and physical education programs is less than satisfactory [National Policy and Legal Analysis…

Mechanisms underlying socioeconomic disparities in school readiness and health outcomes, particularly obesity, among preschool-aged children are complex and poorly understood. Obesity can induce changes in proteins in the circulation that contribute to the negative impact of obesity on health; such changes may relate to cognitive and emotion…

Obesity is a significant public health issue affecting even our youngest children. Given that a significant amount of young children are enrolled in child care, the goal of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a child care facility-based obesity prevention program. Over 1,000 facilities participated in the study. The intervention…