Young School Age Children

There are many ways to encourage children to eat healthier and keep healthy eating exiting. Such as:-

Childhood obesity is a growing problem in America. "the percentage of obese children doubling from 6.5% in 1980, to 17.0% in 2006. Weight, nutrition, and physical activity are the main components to a child’s overall health.”(1) “When parents become too busy to cook meals in their homes, children learn poor eating habits and develop into unhealthy eaters.”(1) They will take what they learned at home and apply it to anywhere else that they eat. For example a child that drinks milk at dinner and sits with their family at dinner when asked what they want to drink when they are at a friend’s home will ask for milk because the child would associate milk with dinner. Children cannot make healthy choices of their own they need to be guided so

Regional School Unit (RSU) #64 is comprised of an elementary, middle and high school within a small rural community in the town of Corinth, ME. This community is largely supported by agriculture and local business. However, it is about 20 miles from Bangor, ME, the closest city with numerous resources. Unfortunately, this distance restricts Corinth residents with a lack of transportation from having access to these resources. Inadequate knowledge and awareness of health care promotion and prevention methods also have adverse results on community health. Whether the resource be obtaining a pair of glasses or medication from a pharmacy, even the seemingly effortless tasks can present challenges and go to show that members of this community suffer disparity due to their rural location.

        The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act (Public Law 108-265) was passed by Congress in 2004 (Corbin & McKenzie, 2008). The act requires all public schools, or schools with federal funding, to develop a wellness plan for the students (Corbin & McKenzie, 2008).  The policy is attached to increase opportunities for nutrition, physical education and encouragement of better food choices outside of school boundaries (Virgilio, 2009). While the sentiment is clearly positive, whether or not it works or favors certain populations is unclear. The Child Nutrition Act guidelines are a model, since some schools are not adequately funded, other vendors come into play that do not have the best interests of our children at

“But, just like home-cooked food, with sufficient time and encouragement, children can be persuaded to try new foods.” (pg.2) With information on what is healthy and what is needed in a diet, changes can be made to change bad habits of eating junk food and start eating properly. As children learn what is bad and good for them they will take time to think on whether to eat an apple or candy. With that it will help the children start eating healthy rather than unhealthy junk food. With educated parents on this subject they will know what to have their children eat and not to eat. They can start serving them healthy breakfasts and dinners as they eat healthy lunches at school, as well as provide them with healthy snacks. Education is keen to make a positive outcome on someone’s

To touch on poor nutrition, research shows that almost one-third of U.S. children between the ages of four and nineteen eat fast food every day; this results in weight gain of approximately 6 extra pounds on a growing child each year (NACHRI, 2007). Fast food consumption has increased fivefold among children since 1970. Not only is fast food an issue, but when parents reward their children with sugary foods and/or use fruits and vegetables as a punishment, this may cause children’s views toward nutritious food to be negative. Some great educational tools that can be shared both in and out of the classroom are “The Food Guide Pyramid” and “My Plate.” Both show that appropriate number of serving of each food category. “My Plate” does a great job of even providing games, activity sheets, kid-friendly recipes, and physical activity tips to elementary aged children (My Plate, 2015). They also provide great resources for adults so parents and educators can practice what they preach and set good examples for children. Educating children on an what a healthy diet consists of and why it is important is probably the greatest preventative tool we can use to prevent obesity. As the famous saying goes, “knowledge is

Nutrition plays an important role in one’s health, an unhealthy diet can be a contributing factor for overall poor health. In fact, it can even lead to numerous enduring illnesses, such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. 2and3 Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, affecting 11.3% of adults or 26.6 million. 4 Childhood obesity has been an increasing issue in the United States as well, There has been a rise in childhood obesity in children ages 6-11 years old gone upldren too many vaccinations at nging. are essential to public health and are also free their children too many vaccinations at from 6.5% to 19.5%. In children ages 12-19 years old it has gone up from 5.0% to 18.1% in 1998-2008. 5 In one study, doctors counseled adults and children on diet and nutrition during 12.2% of all visits in a targeted population of 15.2% in 2007. 6 It is recommended that individuals follow healthy diets that consist of health food choices such as fruits and vegetables. 2and3

The current state of affairs isn’t ideal for school children as many schools offer children foods of minimal nutritional value with some schools still allowing fast food restaurants to provide their services in high schools and middle schools. The current policies actually contribute to the toxic environment that many children face both at home and at school as those most impacted by the obesity epidemic are minority and poor urban children who don’t have healthy choices at home or in school. Part of the problem

The goal of this program was to prevent Type 2 Diabetes as well as reduce childhood obesity and the among Kahnawake residents. The project developed a health education curriculum for children, strengthened the school’s nutrition policy to create supportive environments for healthy eating in the school, and provided a program of classroom and school activities to promote healthy lifestyles for parents, teachers, and children throughout the school year. To follow up and support what the children learned in class, a year-long program of community activities that included walking clubs, cooking courses and community gardens was initiated (Willows, Hanley, & Delormier,

Important strides can be made in addressing this issue through educating children, teachers and parents about healthy nutrition, physical activity and screen time. There is growing need of structured school-based educational programs and research to evaluate effectiveness of such programs. In this study, we aim to assess knowledge of Olmsted county school children and teachers, educate them, and assess their post-intervention improvement in knowledge.

Childhood obesity has expanded tremendously within the past thirty years (CDC, 2015). It is not only a state, but also a nationwide issue. For many children, they depend on their school lunches to provide them the nutritious meals they cannot afford to have at home. As a community, we need to get our children into better shape. Not only will they become more astute, but they will also live healthier lifestyles, and have less health complications as they age. When you are overweight or obese, you are much more likely to develop health problems like heart disease, diabetes, or even a stroke. It is our responsibility as a community, state, and nation to offer nutritious meals and activities for our youth and future.

Strengthening community action is instrumental in establishing positive health outcomes in young people. In strengthening community action, various support networks are put into place to not only prevent

Upon reviewing the community vitality data I came to the conclusion that the health problem that a health education program would be most appropriate to address would be childhood nutritional health and fitness. I came to this conclusion after careful data analysis. Of the county’s adults (18+) 77% ate less than five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, this percentage is so high likely because of attitudes and habits these adults picked up when they were children. The second largest age demographic in the county is children aged 10 to 17 are overweight, six percent more than the state average, 88% of children age 10 to 17 are not meeting daily targets for fruit and vegetable consumption and 30% age 10 to 17 watch 3 or

External factors can be recognised as interventions from surrounding environments such as government, school or law. All of these environments provide a wide range of information about health that is available through specific sources and intend to improve the health of people. Although the level of provided information is extensive that does not always mean they are fully competent. There are a few positive interventions made by schools that focus on educating children on the subject of health. One of these interventions is providing physical education in schools, which is needed in present times as children are overwhelmed by electronic devices. It stimulates them to being active and gives an opportunity to take part in a wide range of sporting activities (Y158, cited in L185 Block 3 Session 3, p.13). Another intervention refers to a healthy diet, more specifically to meals that are provided in schools. There is a high involvement of media that comments on what kind of food is served by school kitchens. Parents as well as a society expect that schools offer balanced nutrition and encourage children to take a healthy approach to their diet (Y158, cited in L185 Block 3 Session 3, p.14). One more intervention is educating children about health, which is included in their lessons. Information given during the lessons is focusing on having a greater understanding and knowledge of health matters (Y158, cited in L185 Block 3 Session 3, p.13).

Community health awareness: Teaching children to be aware of health issues increases community awareness from a young age (Fowler et al 2015, p. e68).