Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117187

Felicia Buadoo, MS, RD, LD, DC Department of Health, Maternal and Family Health Administration, 825 North Capitol St NE, Washington, DC 20001, 202-442-5925, felicia.buadoo@dc.gov and Marilyn Seabrooks, MPA, Maternal and Family Health Administration, DC Department of Health, 825 N. Capitol, NE, Washington, DC 20002.

The benefits of good nutrition play a vital role in promoting positive developmental outcomes in children and their families. By developing positive eating habits early in childhood, a reduction in incidence of chronic diseases and improvement of quality of health and life is observed. Approximately 600 District of Columbia nonprofit and for profit early care and education sites serving children under the age of five have a substantial need for early childhood and family health promotion information. However, the lack of training among childcare professionals reduces the availability of health education programs aimed at improving nutritional practices of women, children and their families.A training program in nutrition has been designed to train professionals to conduct nutrition education activities for preschool children and their parents and/or guardians. A faculty member of a local university and graduate students conducts the training program. Team Nutrition materials, developed by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is the basis of the training of the child care professionals. It is an integrated, behavior-based, comprehensive plan for promoting the nutritional health of the nation's school children. The ultimate goal of the program is to improve children's lifelong eating and physical activity habits by using the principles of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Food Guide Pyramid. The specific materials that will be used include the following: 1.Food & Me: Teacher's Kit: activity based program designed to build skills and motivate children to make healthy choices during preschool to kindergarten. 2.Go, Glow, and Grow: Foods for You: colorful, interactive nutrition activity booklet for children aged 3-4. 3.Five a Day, Let's Eat and Play: developed by the Florida Department of Education providing interactive learning activities for preschool children aged 3-5 years. After training, childcare professionals will be expected to develop and implement nutrition education activities for the children and their families. In order to enhance and support the nutrition education activities for children, the childcare professionals will be expected to arrange group sessions for parents and/or guardians to view and discuss their programs.

Learning Objectives:

• To train childcare professionals to develop and implement nutrition education programs for preschool children and their parents and/or guardians.

Keywords: Maternal and Child Health, Access and Services

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.