Iowa State University Extension

Policies and Best Practices for Nutrition and Physical Activity in Early Childhood Settings

Problem:
Child Care Center Directors need training opportunities for staff that inspire them to increase the quality of the care they provide, as well as motivating them to set personal goals for behaviors that make them good nutrition and physical activity role models. Many staff members in childcare centers have no formal training in the best policies and practices for providing care.

Response:
A 2 hour training was offered to 74 providers who work in Little Blessings Child Care Centers, which are associated with Alegent Health sites. The training included a tool to do self assessment of Nutrition and Physical Activity policies and practices, as well as providing practical application information for implementing practices.

Impact:

Participants listed the most helpful ideas from the presentation as:

  • Using the self-assessment
  • How old children are when certain movement skills emerge
  • All of the new/fun activity ideas to get childen to do more physical activity
  • Information on the new food pyramid

Participants indicated they had implemented new physical activity behaviors in working with children such as:

  • We do the caterpillar walk, the mirror activity and catching the netting
  • I plan more physical activities now
  • I make sure the infants that I care for get physical activity through-out the day
  • I make sure everyone, including myself, gets physical activity daily
  • I encourage more outside activity
  • We do the head and shoulders, knees and toes song and play at chasing each other outside.

 

Participants indicated they had changes some nutrition behaviors for themselves or in working with children, such as:

  • I'm getting more fiber in daily meals
  • I'm reading ingredients more when I shop and making sure my own children get healthy foods
  • I don't offer as much food to the children and don't encourage them to eat beyond the point where they are satisfied. I'm personally trying to stick closer to the Food Pyramid.
  • I'm watching my trans-fats and calories
  • I'm drinking a lot more water and offering water to the kids more often.
  • I'm thinking more about the nutritional value of the food that I feed the children.
Contact:
Patricia Anderson
West Pottawattamie Extension
3501 Harry Langdon Bldg - Careers Building
Council Bluffs, IA 51503
712-366-7070
pander@iastate.edu