Obesity Prevention

PREVENTING OBESITY FROM BIRTH

CHDI worked for several years to advance policies and best practices to combat childhood obesity in Connecticut.

The focus is on prevention efforts, since we know that a foundation for healthy weight begins before and during pregnancy, and in the earliest years of a child’s life.

The Problem:

• Obesity affects an alarming one-third of children in Connecticut and nationwide.
• The long-term health consequences of child obesity are troubling, particularly as they affect populations most at risk for poor health and developmental outcomes.
• Despite many obesity-related initiatives to combat child obesity in Connecticut, rates of obesity among Connecticut children remain stagnant.
• Childhood obesity tracks into adulthood, and recent research shows that obesity may be very difficult to reverse if children are obese by 5 years of age.

CHDI’s Obesity Efforts

CHDI work related to obesity prevention, included:

• Policy Brief: Ensuring Young Children Grow Up at a Healthy Weight: Policy Opportunities to Prevent Obesity. This policy brief was prepared for CHDI as part of a grant to the UConn RuddCenter for Food Policy and Research. It recommends five ways child care settings and hospitals can help Connecticut's children grow up at a healthy weight.
• IMPACT: Preventing Childhood Obesity: Maternal-Child Life Course Approach. This report provides a summary of research findings on the causes of obesity and the implications forprevention and early intervention, especially for very young children and their families within the frame of a maternal-child life cycle. 
• A summary report of evidence-based and evidence-informed interventions 
• Efforts underway in Connecticut and recommendations about the next steps 
• Grant funding from the Children's Fund of Connecticut for four obesity prevention projects in 2016
• A second round of grant funding for four additional projects in 2017.