Childhood Obesity published a special theme journal issue on early care and education programs (ECE) policy and practice. It unites a group of outstanding researchers focusing on the role of policies and practices within ECE programs to support healthy practices. Each article addresses one or more important influences, including public policies, such as the federally funded Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) or state licensing standards, facility-level policies for physical activity or screen-time, and food procurement practices, to mention a few. This supplement is the first to address early care and education settings, both child care centers and family child care homes, to illustrate and guide best practices for healthy weight development. The special supplement was supported by Healthy Eating Research and the Early Childhood working group, a collaboration between HER and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (NOPREN). The supplement is dedicated to Susie Nanney, a champion of promoting population health and reducing health disparities, who worked to improve children’s and family health in underserved and rural communities, including in early care and education settings.
Childhood Obesity: ECE Policy and Practice Special Journal Issue
Related Research
April 2019
Parental and Provider Perceptions of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Interventions in the First 1,000 Days: A Qualitative Study
Novel approaches to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption during the first 1,000 days – pregnancy through age 2 years – are urgently needed. This study examined perceptions of SSB consumption and acceptability of potential intervention strategies to promote SSB avoidance in low income families in the first 1,000 days. Themes … More
March 2019
The Cost-Effectiveness of Interventions for Reducing Obesity among Young Children through Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Screen Time
Early childhood is an important period for interventions to prevent obesity, before poor diet and physical activity behaviors become entrenched and related chronic diseases develop. To date there are still few programs that have been evaluated using experimental study designs that demonstrate impacts on young children’s weight. As a result, … More
March 2019
Studying the Impact of Ecological Momentary Interventions on Sugary-Beverage Consumption by Children Through Age 2 in Low-Income Families
The first 1,000 days describes the period from pre-pregnancy through age 2 years, and is increasingly recognized as a critical period for development of childhood obesity. The overall goal of this study is to test mobile technology-based ecologic momentary interventions (EMIs) to deliver policy-relevant health messages among families living in … More