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…

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…

Background: Head Start (HS) staff are ideally positioned to promote healthy behaviors to over one million low-income children each year, however little is understood about their own health. Purpose: To conduct a needs assessment with HS staff to: 1) understand perceptions, barriers and motivators to healthful behaviors; and 2) ascertain interest…

Currently, there is a nationwide effort to include preschool-aged children in wellness efforts for the prevention of obesity. National resources include guidelines, best practices, and tip sheets to assist in the implementation of these interventions. The Let's Move! Child Care Checklist is a resource that can be used to assess the level at…

The prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents from low-income families in the USA has become a significant concern over the last 20 years. One of the major contributors to this problem is the lack of physical activity. The purpose of this paper is to describe initiatives designed to: (1) engage young children in physical activity during…

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…