The University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s Healthy Kids Early Start program targets early childhood obesity prevention by providing long term, sustainable solutions through physical activity and healthy eating.
The University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s (UNCE) All 4 Kids: Healthy, Happy, Active, Fit program is an interdisciplinary approach to addressing child obesity. Developed by UNCE faculty from maternal/child nutrition,exercise physiology and child development, the All 4 Kids program helps children meet the Nevada Pre-Kindergarten
(Pre-K) Standards while encouraging preschool children and families to practice healthy eating habits and be active every day.
The child component of the All 4 Kids program consists of 24, 30-minute preschool lessons, taught three times a week for eight weeks by UNCE staff. Each lesson utilizes dance, a lifetime skill, to introduce children to the specific movements outlined in the Nevada Pre-K Standards in addition to a nutrition concept.
Since young children are dependent on their families to provide their meals and movement opportunities, the All 4 Kids program encourages families to build healthy habits together. Each week of the program children receive an All 4 Kids Family Pack containing a nutrition activity for the family to complete together. In addition to the family packs,
parents and caregivers are invited to attend a monthly family event. Each event has interactive games and a food demonstration for families to try new foods and movement games together. Each family event concludes with children performing the All 4 Kids dances they learned in the preschool lessons. Together families and children learn to be healthy, happy, active and fit.
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The prevalence of childhood obesity has dramatically increased nationwide. Specifically, 31% of Nevadan children ages 4-6 years old are overweight or obese. The underlying causes range from genetic propensity to socioeconomic, cultural and environmental influences resulting in unhealthful eating and physical activity practices. A person’s relationship with food and physical activity begins in infancy and is molded during childhood. The Healthy Kids Early Start program targets young children and early childhood obesity prevention through direct education strategies and policy, systems, and environmental changes in both the home and childcare environments.
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