Ammerman contributes expertise to IOM policy committee on childhood obesity
June 23, 2011 | |
A new Institute of Medicine (IOM) report offers policy recommendations to curb the high rates of obesity among America’s youngest children. The guidelines include limiting television and other media use, encouraging infants and young children in preschool and child care to spend more time in physically active play, and requiring child care providers to promote healthy sleeping practices.
Alice Ammerman, DrPH, professor of nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and director of the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP), served as an expert in nutrition and food marketing on the committee that issued the report. Other nutrition faculty members also contributed. The report outlines how children’s activities and behaviors can be better shaped by child care centers, preschools, pediatricians’ offices, federal nutrition programs, and other facilities and programs. Although the recommendations are directed toward policymakers and health care and child care providers, the report notes that professionals can counsel and support parents in promoting healthy habits in the home as well.About 10 percent of children from infancy to age 2 and slightly more than 20 percent of children ages 2 through 5 are overweight or obese. The rates of excess weight and obesity among children ages 2 to 5 have doubled since the 1980s.
“We used to think that chubby babies would ‘grow out’ of their baby fat,” Ammerman said. “But increasing scientific evidence suggests that we need to be concerned about extra weight in very young children – because a chubby baby often becomes an overweight adult.” “Child care providers, health professionals and policymakers can be helpful partners to parents in reducing obesity risk by creating healthy environments and implementing positive practices during the crucial early years of development,” said committee chair Leann Birch, PhD, Pennsylvania State University’s Distinguished Professor of Human Development and director of the university’s Center for Childhood Obesity Research. The committee recommended a multipronged approach to combating early childhood obesity that includes identifying when young children show signs of excess weight, promoting healthy eating, increasing physical activity and ensuring adequate sleep. “With obesity, perhaps more than any other health problem, the factors responsible are enormously diverse, complex and inter-connected,” said Ammerman. “This also means that there is no single, ‘magic bullet’ solution to the problem.” The committee recommended a multipronged approach to combating early childhood obesity, including:
Child care centers interested in implementing healthy changes can download the Let’s Move Child Care Checklist. The national Let’s Move program, led by first lady Michelle Obama, is based on the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (NAP SACC) study conducted at HPDP and led by nutrition professor Dianne Ward, EdD. The checklist helps child care centers rate physical activity, screen time, food served, beverages served and infant feeding.Child care centers interested in implementing the NAP SACC program can receive training through the Center for Excellence in Training and Research Translation, also a project based at HPDP. Online training is available.
The IOM study was sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine provides independent, objective, evidence-based advice to policymakers, health professionals, the private sector and the public. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org or http://iom.edu. # # #
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu. |
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