2024-2025 Springboard Opportunities

2024-2025 Springboard Opportunities

2024-2025 Springboard Opportunities Offered by CDC and Nemours Children’s Health for States to Advance Early Care and Education Work What is the Healthy Kids, Healthy Future: Technical Assistance Program (HKHF TAP)? HKHF TAP provides support to early care and education (ECE) organizations to integrate best practices and standards for healthy eating, physical activity, breastfeeding support, […]

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Webinar Series: ECE Nutrition and Physical Activity Resource Showcase

Webinar Series: ECE Nutrition and Physical Activity Resource Showcase

Nemours Children’s Health and partners hosted a three-part webinar series to share new resources and training materials for Early Care and Education (ECE). These resources can be used by ECE professionals, trainers, and organizations to support healthy eating and physical activity in ECE programs. A description, recording, and presentation slides for each webinar is below. […]

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What Iowa CACFP Can Do for Me!

What Iowa CACFP Can Do for Me!

With support from the Healthy Kids, Healthy Future Technical Assistance Program (HKHF TAP), the Iowa Department of Education and state partners found an innovative way to increase participation in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) to provide nutritious meals to eligible children and improve child care quality. Learn More »

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ECELC Increases ECE Healthy Practices in 10 States

ECELC Increases ECE Healthy Practices in 10 States

In July 2019, results of the Nemours Children’s Health System’s National Early Care and Education Learning Collaboratives (ECELC) project were published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease. The ECELC project, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), involved nearly 1,200 child care programs in 10 states. This collaborative is the largest of […]

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NAPSACC Earns Recognition

NAPSACC Earns Recognition

A March 2019 brief by Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, states that NAPSACC (i.e.: Nutrition And Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care) has the “best evidence for impact” on obesity prevention in young children. Developed by the Children’s Healthy Weight Research Group at the UNC Center for Health […]

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WIC Changes and Effects on Childhood Obesity

WIC Changes and Effects on Childhood Obesity

Researchers evaluated the association of the 2009 changes to the US Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food package and childhood obesity trends. They hypothesized that the food package change reduced obesity among children participating in WIC, a population that has been especially vulnerable to the childhood obesity epidemic. Before the […]

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Regular Height and Weight Checks Critical

Regular Height and Weight Checks Critical

Children monitored regularly for height and weight are less likely to be overweight, according to research by University of Manchester and Oxford experts. Publishing in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports, the researchers say current practice may fail to spot a large number of children who are a normal weight on school entry but develop obesity […]

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Policies to Reduce Kids’ Consumption of Sugary Drinks

Policies to Reduce Kids’ Consumption of Sugary Drinks

Leading health organizations call for excise taxes and limits on marketing to children, among other measures; the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Heart Association (AHA) cite strong evidence of association between added sugars and increased risk of heart disease and other long-term health problems. In a joint policy statement, the AAP and […]

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Small Changes Can Go Far in Preventing Childhood Obesity

Small Changes Can Go Far in Preventing Childhood Obesity

In the United States, the percentage of children and adolescents with obesity has more than tripled since 1970. Today, approximately one in five school-aged children (ages 6 to 19) is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—and that figure doesn’t include children who are considered merely overweight and not obese. According to […]

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Outdoor Play is Key for Young Children’s Health

Outdoor Play is Key for Young Children’s Health

Preschoolers are not experiencing enough outdoor play when not in childcare, new research from the University of Western Australia (UWA) has found. The research may be of interest to early childhood education and care services in encouraging and providing suggestions for families to engage in outdoor activities at home. The research also highlights the importance […]

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