September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, providing an opportunity to highlight not only the health challenges facing our children, but also the solutions that we’re promoting through our work at Jump IN for Healthy Kids. In central Indiana 4 out of 10 children are estimated to be overweight or obese. That’s nearly a quarter…
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released its top 10 list of threats to global health in 2019. Number two on that list is noncommunicable diseases, many of which are related to overweight and obesity. Obesity is associated with noncommunicable diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease, which account for 70% of deaths worldwide – 41 million…
“Family style dining is becoming part of the routine!” – one of the teachers reporting on her experience learning best practices around nutrition and physical activity in child care centers. When an activity becomes routine, it’s part of the every day activities, which means it will last. Sustainability is always Jump IN’s goal when integrating new best practices. And in our child care work, implementing the Taking Steps to Healthy Success program leads to long-lasting healthy changes.
Eating family-style meals and snacks is recognized as a best practice in child care settings of all types—large or small centers, in-home providers, preschools, or church child cares. Family style is all about children and supervising adults sharing a meal together, with children encouraged to serve food themselves. To follow the best practice, caregivers place…
A mountain of research suggests that healthy nutrition radically improves children’s cognitive function and measurable academic achievement. We know that: Specific vitamins and minerals that our body obtains from nutrient-rich foods play a critical role in brain growth, development and learning. Staying hydrated is important—a drop of just 1-2% in body fluid can cause difficulty…
