Early care and education settings are essential partners in the battle against childhood obesity. We describe an Extension-facilitated early childhood obesity prevention intervention conducted in 25 rural early care and education settings. A total of 148 policy, systems, or environmental changes were achieved, reaching approximately 450 young…

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…

Research indicates a link between maternal employment and children's risk of obesity, but little prior work has addressed maternal employment during children's infancy. This study examined the timing and intensity of early maternal employment and associations with children's later overweight and obesity in a sample of low-income families in…

Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this research was to develop and evaluate nutrition education competencies and a competency-based resource guide, Connecting the Dots...Healthy Foods, Healthy Choices, Healthy Kids (CTD), for preschool-aged children in California. Methods: Nutrition education experts and California Department of Education staff…

Objective: To describe and compare obesity prevention practices related to physical activity and beverages in home- and center-based child care programs. Methods: A telephone survey of licensed home- and center-based child care programs in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Washington between October and December 2008. Results: Most programs…

Objective: To examine the association between child care practices and child care provider knowledge and beliefs about their role in supporting children's healthful eating. Design: Longitudinal design using survey and observation data from baseline and year 1 of the Encouraging Healthy Activity and Eating in Childcare Environments (ENHANCE) pilot…

Baseline findings from the Healthy Home Child Care Project include data from Family Child Care Providers (FCCPs) in Oregon (n=53) who completed assessments of nutrition and physical activity policies and practices and BMI data for children in the care of FCCPs (n=205). Results show that a significant percentage of FCCPs failed to meet child care…

One approach to halting the childhood obesity epidemic has been the modification of foods available to children during the school day. In recent years there has been an increased focus on obesity prevention efforts among children ages birth to 5 and the role of child care settings in prevention efforts. Head Start serves as an important venue for…

This longitudinal study identified common summer care arrangements for adolescents and examined whether those arrangements predicted risk for obesity (Body Mass Index (BMI) [greater than or equal to] 85th percentile for age and gender) the following school year. Participants were a nationally representative sample of 1766 adolescents ages 10-18…

Young children depend on their families and teachers to support their well-being and promote positive development, including eating behaviors. Children's food preferences and willingness to try new foods are influenced by the people around them. The eating behaviors children practice early in life affect their health and nutrition--significant…

Overweight is increasing in children, leading to negative health consequences. Children also lack appropriate levels of important vitamins and nutrients in their diets. Environmental cues, such as food proximity, have been shown to influence consumption rates in adults. The present study has tested whether proximity to either a nutrient-dense or…

Through secondary data analysis of a nationally representative sample, the study explored the relations between adolescent summer arrangements and associated developmental outcomes (well-being, externalizing behavior, body mass index, and academic performance). The study also examined if these relations were mediated by parental knowledge of youth…

Childhood overweight and obesity is a public health concern not just because of its growing prevalence but also for its serious and lasting health consequences. Though height and weight measures are easy to obtain and New Hampshire Head Start sites measure height and weight of their enrollees, there are numerous challenges related to accurate…

Physical activity habits are established in early childhood. Increasing a child's fundamental movement skill confidence and competence may result in a trajectory of increased physical activity and a lower risk of becoming overweight. The evidence upon which the promotion of physical activity in early childhood settings is based is tenuous. This…

In the past 10 years the prevalence of childhood obesity has increased considerably and there is growing recognition of the need to establish positive attitudes to healthy lifestyle practices from an early age if this trend is to be reversed. Childcare centres provide ideal environments from which to develop these positive attitudes. A literature…