UK Extension Engaging Families to Prevent Childhood Obesity

These posts are in relation to Senate Bill 17:

Unhealthy diet and physical inactivity are strong contributing factors to illness and debility. Patterns of diet and activity are often learned and continued in the home with family. In order to help prevent childhood obesity, University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Services in Perry, Harrison, Scott, Fayette, and Carroll counties are engaging with families to increase physical activity and nutritional health.

In Perry County, Extension Service partnered with the KY River District Health Department to have a “Family Fun Day” to educate parents, increase physical activity within the family, and decrease the likelihood of childhood obesity.

Activities included:
Sack races
Jump rope
Hula hoops
Frisbees
Hopscotch
Basketball toss
Dancing

120 participants learned that:
Increasing physical activity can be fun
Spending time with children is important
Increased physical activity can lead to decreased weight
Healthy snacks promote overall good health

In Harrison County, Extension Family and Consumer Services partnered with other community leaders to sponsor their fifth annual 1 mile walk in conjunction with the adult 5 k run to encourage those who do not run to be active. Additionally, the activity encouraged life-long habits of physical activity for all ages. The event provided an opportunity for families to participate in this physical activity together.

• 120 adults and 95 youth completed the 1 mile course to receive their metal award necklace.
• Media coverage of the event helped to increase community awareness about the importance of physical activity.
• One parent said “This is an event our whole family does together. I’m glad they made it later this year so dad can now walk with us too.”

In Scott County, Cooperative Extension partnered with WEDCO, District Health Department, and the Scott County Public School System to conduct a family nutrition and physical activity seminar for families in the Stamping Ground Community.

• The program consists of four sessions.
• 14 families enrolled with a total of 50 participants.
• By educating parents, the program hopes to influence the nutritional choices and physical activity of children.

Elementary school age students and parents jump to health! In Fayette County, Cooperative Extension collaborated with UK College of Medicine and LFUCG Health Department to present the “Jumpin Jaguar” program.

• Partnership identified 50 highest BMIs in limited resource school (indicator of health risk).
• Program developed with emphasis on physical activity, nutrition and asthmatic diagnosis.
• Parent workshops were provided to educate and reinforce the need for parental involvement and oversight. 100% of parents reported knowledge gained.

Young Parents Love It! - Parents of Head-Start students in Carroll County have met bi-monthly for the past 4 months to learn about healthy meals, nutrition, food, and exercise. These parents are concerned about their children’s weight, the prevalence of obesity in children, and the cost of eating out instead of eating home-cooked meals.

• So far, twelve parents have learned to plan and prepare simple, healthy meals that children love.
• More parents have joined the group since it began.
• Children are asking for meals and foods that parents learned to prepare.
• Parents have commented that they are now spending more time with their children and the outdoor time spent together is an easy way to exercise.

Parents are concerned about the welfare of their children, and obesity is a significant health concern for our nation and our commonwealth. Providing healthy guidance to young parents and children may be an important step towards dramatically altering the health care future of Kentuckians.

UK Extension helping to prevent childhood obesity through nutrition and activity programs in schools

This post relates to Senate Bill 17

The health of the nation's future depends on the health of its newest generations. Childhood obesity is a serious personal and public health concern with potentially devastating consequences. There appears to be a clear pathway to adult obesity and the disease and debility associated with it through the earlier and earlier onset of childhood obesity. One of the best ways to stop or even reverse excessive weight in children is to improve diet and exercise. University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension is helping to do just that with innovative programs throughout the Commonwealth.

LEAP for Good Health – Literacy, Eating and Activity for Preschoolers (LEAP) is an Extension program that has been utilized in both Marshall and Johnson counties. This program has been well received by the majority of participants, site staff, and families. The program consists of reading stories with food and activity themes and then following up with a related hands-on activity. Not only do the children hear and learn about nutrition and exercise in an entertaining story format, but they also get to act out things they learned in the story such as eating a snack with fruits and vegetables or doing some related physical activity. The LEAP program stresses the importance of both healthy eating and physical activity by engaging children’s minds and bodies.

In Marshall County the program has been used to work with 3 and 4 year old students enrolled in Head Start. The program received rave reviews during a recent self-assessment performed by the Head Start staff. One important benefit of the LEAP program provided by Cooperative Extension has been to increase awareness about the nutritional and physical activity needs of young children. As a result of this increased awareness, an important deficiency was discovered that many classroom sites had inadequate playground facilities designed for young children.

In Johnson County, Early Childcare and Teacher Cadets at Johnson Central High School were trained by University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service to use the LEAP program. 16 Teens and 200 pre-school children have participated in 2008.

Here are a number of quotes:

• “The children couldn’t wait to eat fruits and veggies for snacks after the program.” Thelma Crider, TLC Daycare
• “The children love the teens reading the stories.” Tama Ramey, W.R. Castle Resource Center
• “The teens enjoy having real life experience in teaching.” Neva Rowland, Family and Consumer Sciences instructor at Johnson Central High School
  

In Leslie County, Extension Service collaborated with others to form the Leslie County Youth Wellness program which focuses on increasing physical activity and healthy eating. 4th and 5th grade students are shown the importance of healthy eating and physical activity by discussing how it can affect them today and later in life.

Here are some highlights of the program:

• Life skills test scores increased at two elementary schools with one of the schools in the top 20 in the state
• 120 4th and 5th grade students in the county participated
• Teachers in the schools stated that the lessons provided by Extension and FCS contributed to the increase in test scores
• The teachers reinforced what was taught after the program was completed

Engaging young children to improve diet and exercise is an important step towards the treatment and prevention of obesity. The issue of childhood obesity and lack of physical activity is an important issue. Children today stay inside to watch TV, play videogames and work on the computer which can keep kids from being active. A lack of parental oversight may lead to children eating too many snacks and junk food. This points to the importance of teaching kids how to make healthy nutritional choices.

Master Food Volunteer Program

The state of Kentucky ranks 2nd in the nation in percentage of overweight adults based on reported height and weight. One in every two Kentuckians is at increased risk for developing diabetes. It is imperative that our state provides knowledge to our citizens so they can develop healthier life styles. Therefore, the Jefferson County Extension Family & Consumer Sciences Agent started the Master Food Volunteer Program (MFVP). The program was developed on the premise that a group of volunteers could reach more people and complement the extension agents and nutrition assistants in teaching proper eating habits. As part of the Mayor’s Healthy Hometown Movement, we strive to promote nutrition education by teaching correct portion size, the benefits of consuming more fruits and vegetables and the importance of choosing healthy snacks to do our part in combating the problems facing our area.

Thirty-three people from diverse backgrounds and age groups have participated in the five day training. Topics discussed were standard based nutrition and how it affects diabetes and heart disease which are two of the highest rated diseases in the state of Kentucky. Additional topics covered were international foods and working with different target populations.

A pre-test and a post-test were completed for the training. Results from the tests showed that 92% of the participants said they were very likely to change their diet to a more nutritious selection as a result of this training and 8% stated they would be likely to change their diet. In addition, four participants verbally reported an increase of exercising and a total weight loss of 85 pounds.

The thirty-three Master Food volunteers have taught over 120 nutrition classes reaching over 7,200 youth and adults. The majority of the classes were taught at 47 different community agencies serving at-risk groups. The agencies include Home of the Innocents, Volunteers of America, Salvation Army and Presbyterian Community Centers.
The Metro Health Department gave the Extension Service two grants totaling $34,800 to start the MFVP.

Resources for Parents and Caregivers

The Allen, Simpson, and Logan Community Early Childhood Council has worked to secure funding to push forward programs which provide important resources for parents and caregivers. We often work with like-minded agencies to widen the circle and reach more people. Armed with skills, parents and caregivers can greatly increase a child’s future success in school. Those early relationships are critical to a child’s development.

Research helps us identify three key factors influencing young children’s readiness for school:

• Intellectual skills
• Motivation to learn
• Strong socio-emotional capacities

All three factors develop during the early years of life, primarily through language rich parent-child relationships. (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). Parents and caregivers become a child’s “first teachers.”

When children in our counties show low scores in reading, art, music, and drama, it may be related to the child’s early development and it could lead to bigger problems later. Family and consumer sciences professionals are working to provide important resources for parents and caregivers, such as parent packets, child-friendly books, and a “Parent Express” newsletter. The newsletter has been a success in encouraging parents to want more.

This experience is relevant to activity in the Kentucky legislature. Representative Jim Decesare is sponsoring a bill in the 2008 Kentucky General Assembly Session. The bill draft looks at parent education program pilots. The pilot takes a mentoring approach for families with limited resources. Citizens can review the bill draft online.

Educating Parents Can Help Prevent Childhood Obesity

Obesity has negative short- and long-term health consequences for children, including a higher risk for adult obesity and associated illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and depression. Yet, according to research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children younger than 5 years of age likely to be overweight.

The risk of developing childhood obesity can result from how parents feed their infants. In a recent study, investigators developed a parent education plan using research from a variety of disciplines, including nutrition, pediatrics, child development, and family studies. The plan includes a handout to guide parents in the feeding behaviors of children, including recommendations to parents about age-appropriate nutrition and activity to help prevent the onset of obesity.

Recommendations that may prevent childhood obesity include:

• Breastfeeding infants for at least the first year of life.
• Using iron-fortified formula if using baby formula
• Introducing solid foods such as rice cereal and pureed vegetables after four months of age.
• Reintroducing healthy foods even if the infant does not like them at first.
• Learning infant cues for being full and stopping feeding when infants indicate they are no longer hungry.
• Including activity in the infant's daily life, including engaging children in family activities, preschool, and free play time.
• No television before age 2.
  

There is a great deal of valuable information in the relevant scientific literature on obesity. Health care providers offer important instruction and advice for parents to help prevent childhood obesity. The recommendations may help to prevent childhood obesity and the negative health consequences associated with it.

Knott County Teaches At-Risk Families about Nutrition

Nutrition is an important aspect of family life. At-risk families often have poor eating habits due to financial difficulties and lack of knowledge. Knott County Extension Service has worked with at-risk families to improve their eating choices and behaviors.

In 2006-2007, Knott County offered cooking classes to parenting groups. Local Head Start, Even Start, and Graduate Equivalent Program (GED) volunteers provided transportation for participants, incentives, and hands-on skills at the programs. Here are some of the highlights:

• The entire Extension staff worked with 212 parents in three cooking schools to provide information on budgeting, food safety, menu selection, grocery shopping techniques, and food preparation demonstrations.
• The participants planned the menus, prepared the food, decorated the tables, and helped with clean-up.
• 100% of the parents reported that they learned something new at each program.
• One father reported that he has started to help prepare family meals.
• Follow-up evaluations also have found an increase in food safety in the areas of food storage and food preparation.

Knott County has demonstrated there is more than one method available to teach needed family skills. These skills are important for improving the quality of life among at-risk families.

Parent education is effective across diverse families

Often when interventions are designed, little consideration is given to how the intervention might work for people of diverse backgrounds. However, a recent study has shown that the same parenting education program can be effective for parents of different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Researchers compared two separate but related studies of a parent education program based on Re-evaluation Counseling (RC). Specifically, they tried to determine whether the program was easily implemented and effective, whether the effects lasted, and whether the program was useful for populations. The first study involved 25 middle income, married mothers with at least one child younger than five years old. The second study involved 18 black mothers with children enrolled in Head Start. In both studies, mothers were assigned by chance to the parenting education group or to a comparison group. The researchers measured parental attitudes, parenting stress, and parenting practices before and after the parenting education intervention.

For both the middle-income white and low-income black mothers, the parenting education program:

• Reduced parenting-related stress.
• Improved parental attitudes.
• Encouraged authoritative parenting practices.

Debate continues over whether parent education programs need to be tailored for the individual needs of diverse populations. This study shows that even without addressing such factors directly, parent education can be effective with diverse families. However, the authors do not suggest that incorporating diversity issues should be left out or ignored. In fact, attention to issues of diversity may strengthen the effectiveness, decrease drop-out rates, increase accessibility, and help strengthen community bonds.