Healthy Kids, Healthy Future: Promising obesity prevention policies and practices in child care

Nationally, over 24% of children ages 2-5 are already overweight or obese. In addition to home, school, health care and community settings, child care is an important sector for obesity prevention efforts. Reports from the Surgeon General and the White House underscore the need to address this epidemic by starting with our nation's youngest children. This session will explore how public-private partnerships are being leveraged to identify and spread promising policies and practices for obesity prevention in child care. We will include a specific focus on the role of data in creating initiatives that are responsive to the needs of providers. We will highlight NACCRRA's recent survey on healthy eating and physical activity, the national Healthy Kids, Healthy Future movement, and Nemours' successful multi-sector initiative to combat childhood obesity. Discussion will focus on how to leverage survey data and other resources to implement changes in child care policies and practices (both programmatically and for professional development) around healthy eating and physical activity standards, along with resources for technical assistance, training and practical toolkits that can help providers implement the standards.