![]() ![]() Training providers is key, says Nemours' Chang. Now Benjamin's team is testing how day cares implement that change. Massachusetts last summer imposed a 60-minute activity rule. What does that mean?" she asked the recent Nemours meeting. Most states merely require that children "be active throughout the day. Her team visited one Rhode Island day care last fall where the kids didn't get to run around at all when it rained. L No more than 6 ounces of 100 percent juice a day.Īs of last January, Benjamin found Idaho and Louisiana with the fewest such requirements and Delaware, Georgia, Alaska and Nevada with the most.Īmong Benjamin's most disappointing findings: Parents may describe this as the age of ants-in-the-pants, yet an average day included less than an hour of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. L Only 1 percent or fat-free milk for kids 2 and older. L Not letting children sit for more than 30 minutes at a stretch. L At least 60 minutes of structured physical activity and 60 more minutes of active free play. Harvard researcher Sara Benjamin compiled a top-20 list of nutrition and physical activity regulations that health specialists call key. "Everybody is always pointing fingers at us parents saying, `You should do better.' A lot of other people are feeding our kids," agrees nutrition specialist Margo Wootan at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. That makes day care a vital next front, says Debbie Chang of the Delaware nonprofit Nemours Health & Prevention, which helped push that state to adopt a list of new child-care licensing requirements to do just that. Nearly three-fourths of children ages 2 to 5 spend at least part of their day in child care, about half in formal day-care centers. Rates are highest among American Indian, Hispanic and black children, but the problem affects every demographic. Research last April found almost one in five 4-year-olds already was obese. ![]() Two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese, and it starts shockingly early. "Some are there, and some are still getting there." "You have to get people used to this different type of eating," she says. Many of her youngsters had never even seen honeydew and kiwi, and had to be coaxed to try it. The mac-and-cheese got a wheat makeover, too. Matos started serving Latino dishes with brown rice instead of white. "This is a whole new way of eating for our kids," says Maria Matos, who heads the Latin American Community Center in Wilmington, Del., and has overhauled what she now knows wasn't an ideal preschool menu even though it fully complied with day-care regulations. It's about teaching them early, before bad habits form, how being active and eating healthy can be the norm - and that junk food, including the chicken nuggets-type fare that we call "kid food" - should be a rare treat. This isn't about putting youngsters on a diet. ![]()
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