Updated Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation (EPAO) Tool

The Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation (EPAO) is a tool designed to evaluate practices, environmental attributes, and policies of early care and education settings that influence children’s nutrition, physical activity, and sedentary environments. The tool has been updated to assess all current best practices in Go NAP SACC. The EPAO has been expanded to More

Stress in Early Life and Childhood Obesity Risk

The association between stress in early life and obesity and overweight in adulthood is well established. There is also increasing evidence of a link between stress exposure in childhood (or in utero) and child and adolescent obesity. Major sources of early life stress include adverse childhood experiences (e.g., abuse), poverty, food insecurity, and poor relationships More

Mapping the Food Policy Environment in Minnesota Child Care

Child care providers are a vital part of healthy, thriving communities. Over half of children between the ages of zero and five spend significant time in non-parental child care. These early years are critical for healthy brain development and establishing the habits that last a lifetime. Laws and policies shape how we think of “quality” More

Feeding Infants and Young Toddlers: Using the Latest Evidence in WIC Settings

Early life diet and feeding behaviors play an important role in establishing healthy food preferences and behaviors and are crucial for preventing childhood overweight and obesity. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is a key program that targets nutrition of low-income pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children up to More

Feeding Guidelines for Infants and Young Toddlers: A Responsive Parenting Approach. Guidelines for Health Professionals

This executive summary is based on a full report of guidelines developed by an expert panel convened by Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The guidelines are based on current scientific evidence related to responsive parenting practices. Early life diet and feeding behaviors play an important role in establishing More

Guías de alimentación para niñas y niños menores de dos años: Un enfoque de crianza perceptiva

Early life diet and feeding behaviors play an important role in establishing healthy food preferences and behaviors and are crucial for preventing childhood overweight and obesity. This report presents evidence-based recommendations for promoting healthy nutrition and feeding patterns for infants and toddlers from birth to 24 months, with an emphasis on dietary quality, portion sizes, More

Feeding Guidelines for Infants and Young Toddlers: A Responsive Parenting Approach

Early life diet and feeding behaviors play an important role in establishing healthy food preferences and behaviors and are crucial for preventing childhood overweight and obesity. This report presents evidence-based recommendations for promoting healthy nutrition and feeding patterns for infants and toddlers from birth to 24 months, with an emphasis on dietary quality, portion sizes, More

Studying the Novel Approach of Using Electronic Health Records From Pediatric Primary Care to Measure Children’s Consumption of Sugary Beverages

Electronic health record (EHR) screening for sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake may be a novel intervention for reducing SSB intake in children, and would result in longitudinal databases of individual-level consumption that could enhance the ability the evaluate local or regional SSB policies. This study aims to: 1) implement and evaluate the uptake of a single More