, May 25, 2016 — Ulster County toddlers and preschoolers are eating and playing better than they were before HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley introduced a nutrition and physical activity program, child care specialists say.
"We've gone from kids eating only limited foods to almost all kids loving our healthy meals," says Kelly Kohler, co-director of the Little Lambs Academy on Neighborhood Road in Lake Katrine. "They also have more energy to engage in our daily active play outside."
The Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care, or NAP SACC, program works with early child care and education programs countywide to help day care centers and family child care homes adopt best practices so children ages 2 to 5 can start lifelong paths to healthy eating and activity.
In the case of the Little Lambs Academy, NAP SACC's nutritional component reinforces the academy's nearly 2-year-old Little Plates program, which provides healthful, culturally diverse foods, including fresh fruits and vegetables, every day.
"They absolutely love, love, love the food program," Kohler says of the children.
NAP SACC, an evidence-based national program managed locally by HealthAlliance through its Community Heart Health Coalition of Ulster County, also seeks to reduce TV, computer and mobile-device "screen time," says NAP SACC coordinator Laurie Deutsch Mozian.
Research studies published in The Journal of Pediatrics, the Journal of Public Health and other peer-reviewed journals link excessive screen time to childhood obesity and other negative health consequences.
HealthAlliance oversees NAP SACC in nine early child care centers and family day care homes, influencing more than 1,000 children to develop healthy habits since 2011, when it started the program. A $20,000 Champions for Healthy Kids grant from the General Mills Foundation funds the program this year.
"The beauty of NAP SACC, and why it's so successful, is that it's very nonjudgmental," says Mozian, a registered dietitian-nutritionist who is also HealthAlliance's community health coordinator. "Centers identify their own practices, compare them to best practices and make the changes they feel they can succeed at."
The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity calls NAP SACC one of the nation's most innovative early childhood programs to help combat childhood obesity.
"NAP SACC is great, and the changes we've made because of it have really stuck," says Miranda Walker, assistant child care director of the YWCA of Ulster County's Magic Circle School.
"The kids have gone from, ‘I don't like this' or ‘I don't want to do this,' to eating a wide variety of healthy foods and really engaging in play and other fun, structured activities," says Walker, whose center operates at the YWCA on Clinton Avenue in Uptown Kingston and at Ulster County BOCES on Route 9W in Port Ewen.
"The teachers are adopting NAP SACC practices and policies in their own lives too," Walker says. "It's great."
Moreover, NAP SACC's indoor and outdoor playtime lets children burn energy and fuel brain development and learning, she says.
HealthAlliance NAP SACC partners are the Rose Women's Care Service: Community Resource Center in Highland and Family of Woodstock's Child Care Connections program.
About HealthAlliance, a member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network
HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley operates a 315-hospital bed healthcare system comprising HealthAlliance Hospital: Mary's Avenue Campus and HealthAlliance Hospital: Broadway Campus in Kingston, New York, and Margaretville Hospital in Margaretville, New York. It also operates Mountainside Residential Care Center, an 82-bed facility in Margaretville. As Ulster County's largest employer, HealthAlliance is committed to attracting the best-qualified medical and support staff; providing outstanding, responsive, coordinated, compassionate patient- and family-centered care; excelling in clinical outcomes and patient experiences; and ensuring patient rights, privacy and respect are honored at all times, while improving the overall health and well-being of the diverse communities it serves. For more information about how HealthAlliance is delivering the promise of medicine, visit hahv.org or follow Facebook.com/HealthAllianceHV or Twitter.com/HAllianceHudVal.
About Westchester Medical Center Health Network
The Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth) is a 1,700-bed healthcare system headquartered in Valhalla, New York, with 10 hospitals on seven campuses spanning 6,200 square miles of the Hudson Valley. WMCHealth employs more than 12,000 people and has nearly 3,000 attending physicians. From Level 1, Level 2 and Pediatric Trauma Centers, the region's only acute care children's hospital, an academic medical center, several community hospitals, dozens of specialized institutes and centers, skilled nursing, assisted living facilities, homecare services and one of the largest mental health systems in New York State, today WMCHealth is the pre-eminent provider of integrated healthcare in the Hudson Valley. For more information about WMCHealth, visit WMCHealth.org.
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