News reports calling attention to the steady increase in the number of overweight adults have become an accepted part of our media landscape. Worse still, warnings continue that more and more young children, like the adults who care for them, are carrying too much weight. Unfortunately, this bad news about our growing obesity problem isn't just hype. Research confirms that children weigh more than they have in the past and, more ominously, that this weight, if carried into adulthood, has inevitable negative health implications.

The scope of the problem

For many in the early childhood community, confirmation that too many young children are overweight comes as no surprise. Early childhood teachers see it every day — and so do health professionals. Health professionals measure the severity of the problem by comparing the weights of young children today with recommended growth charts and body mass index (BMI) graphs that identify healthy weight ranges based on a child's height and gender. According to Alice Ammerman, DrPH, RD, head of the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self Assessment for Child Care (NAP SACC) program at the University of North Carolina, "Current estimates are that 25% of children between 2 and 5 years of age are overweight. One study suggests that children of this generation may be the first to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents." Ammerman points out that the reason excess weight is so dangerous is that there is evidence it is an underlying cause of many chronic illnesses:

"Increasingly, studies that track the health of overweight children over time show an association between childhood obesity and a number of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. We have also seen an alarming increase in Type 2 Diabetes, formerly called adult onset diabetes, among youth."

Since we know that many children weigh more than they should and that it is unhealthy to carry this weight into adulthood, what can we do? Can the early childhood community work with families to provide information and change attitudes about nutrition and physical activity in ways that will make a difference?

What we can do

As with so much in early childhood, teachers of young children are in an ideal position to make a significant difference. Young children adopt healthy habits more easily and are able to apply these habits over a longer period of time than older children. This has profound implications for early childhood educators. The positive influences conveyed to children, subtle and overt, are played out in the thousands of life choices children make as they travel through adolescence and into adulthood. Caring adults can build awareness and teach the decision-making skills needed to identify healthy diet and activity options.

When children understand and appreciate the importance of good nutrition and an active lifestyle, they have a kind of protection or immunity against the challenging environments at the root of the current crisis. Most experts agree that the widespread availability and promotion of unhealthy food options combined with reduced opportunities for physical activity has created a set of conditions that threatens children's health. Early childhood programs can give children protection against this threat by making modifications to program practices and teaching methods using innovative and newly available tools.

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