Practical Research-based Information from the Nation's Leading Universities
Best Practices
Number of unique resources found: 54
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Food Insight: Your Nutrition and Food Safety Resource
Description: The Web site of the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation provides science-based information on food safety and nutrition to health and nutrition professionals, educators, journalists, government officials and others providing information to consumers.
Description: This website contains information for child care providers and parents about nutritious food for kids. Included on the site are lesson plans, activity ideas, and training materials. Lessons plans and activity cards come in Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese, as well as English.
– General Information –
Author: Byington, Teresa; Madeleine Sigman-Grant, Anne Lindsay, Tara Spann
Description: This brochure is intended for use with parents and caregivers. It provides general information on healthy snacks; how to choose them, how to get kids to eat them, etc.
Be Active Kids: A Nutrition and Physical Activity Education Program for Four-and Five-Year-Olds 
Author: Dunn, Carolyn
Description: A program guide from helping children develop positive physical activity and healthy eating habits for a lifetime.
Bright Futures Family Tip Sheets
Description: Developmentally appropriate tools to help families promote the health and well-being of their children. Downloadable brochures broken down into age categories. 1-21 yrs. Available in color or black and white.
Bright Futures Nutrition Family Fact Sheets
Description: Series of nutrition fact sheets for families organized by developmental periods. Downloadable brochures divided by ages. Covers infants to teenagers. Available in color or black and white.
Building Blocks for Fun and Healthy Meals
Description: Information about the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) meal requirements, advice on how to serve high- quality meals and snacks, menu planning, nutrition education ideas and tips, and much more.
Center for Science in the Public Interest Publisher of Nutrition Action Healthletter
Description: The Center for Science in the Public Interest provides information related to nutrition and health, and food safety.
Child Care, What Will My Child Eat?
Description: This newsletter describes the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) available to child care providers. The program ensures that meals and snacks served to your child meet government nutrition guidelines for healthful eating.
Description: Brochure provides information on easy weekend lunch ideas for children.
Description: This brochure provides information on the importance of family meals. Suggestions on how to get organized and make it happen.
Family Food Shopping: Spend Less, Get More
Description: This brochure provides advice on shopping for the family, best bargains, and how to spend less.
Description: This brochure provides information on making fast and healthful meals when you're in a hurry. Provides helpful tips.
Fats in Foods: How Much for Kids?
Description: Brochure on how much fat children need to eat and what are good sources of low fat low/saturated fat foods.
Description: Many families ask for information on what, when, and how much to
feed their child. This fact sheet give information on feeding patterns and meals for infants.
For Growing Bones...Which Milk?
Description: This brochure provides information on choosing milk for children to drink, why milk is important and what to give to specific ages.
Fruits & Vegetables Galore: Helping Kids Eat More
Description: Fruits & Vegetables Galore is a tool for school foodservice professionals packed with tips on planning, purchasing, protecting, preparing, presenting and promoting fruits and vegetables. Use Fruits & Vegetables Galore to help rejuvenate your cafeteria with colorful fruits and vegetables. Dress up your serving line to draw attention to fruits and vegetables to encourage children to make these selections. Solicit the cooperation of teachers by providing them with teaching tools or by supporting their educational efforts. Make your daily meal offerings competitive with other commercial options available to students. Use all these materials to get students excited about eating healthfully.
Description: This brochure provides information on handling choosy/picky eaters and how to avoid conflicts.
Healthful Choices for Vegetarian Families
Description: This brochure provides information on making healthful food choices for vegetarian families.
Healthful Eating for Your Family
Description: This newsletter provides useful information about healthy eating for your family.
Healthful Eating...Food Labels Help!
Description: This brochure provides information on how to interpret food labels.
Healthy Eating for Children 2 Through 5 Years Old: A Guide for Parents and Childcare Providers
Author: Serrano, Elena; Danielle Parra, Shelly Nickols-Richardson
Description: This publication covers different topics that are of interest to parents and caregivers of young children and gives an overview of healthy eating and feeding practices. Proper nutrition and opportunities to play and be physically active are critical to ensure that your child grows properly and adopts healthy behaviors for lifelong health.
Description: Resource to help communities, States, and organizations develop policies and programs that help improve people's health and well-being
Healthy Weights for Healthy Kids: What Should I Do if My Child Is Overweight?
Author: Serrano, Elena; Kathryn Branstad
Description: This publication provides information to parents on children who are overweight. It explains how to know if a child is overweight, concerns for overweight children, and what parents can do to help. It includes suggestions on how often to eat, what types of food to eat, and how to includes physical activities into their day.
Healthy Weights for Healthy Kids: What is a Healthy Weight?
Author: Serrano, Elena; Kathryn Branstad
Description: This publication provides information to parents on weight and children. It provides information on guidelines for a healthy weight, how to know if a child is overweight, and what parents can do to help. It includes brief information on what foods to eat and how to include physical activities in their day.
Healthy Weights for Healthy Kids: What Should I Do if My Child Has a Poor Body Image?
Author: Serrano, Elena; Kathryn Branstad
Description: This publication provides information to parents on children who may have a poor body image. Body image is how a person views him- or herself in the mirror and in his or her mind. It can change over time. A body image-positive or negative—can affect a person’s sense of worth or self-esteem.
It discusses the importance of body image, symptoms of eating disorders, and what parents can do to help.
Helping Your Child: Tips for Parents (wieght control information)
Description: Tips for parents to encourage healthy eating and physical activity in their children.
How Much Is Enough? The Food Guide Pyramid can help you
Description: This newsletter provides useful information on how much food young children need every day.
Iron In Foods: Does My Child Get Enough?
Description: Fact sheet on iron in children's diet. Foods high in iron are listed as well as amounts needed for specific ages.
Is My Child's Appetite Normal?
Description: This brochure provides information on children's appetites and what's normal and when to have concerns.
Description: Brochure provides information on fruit juice vs. fruit drinks.
Description: The International Food Information Council, along with 5 partner
organizations, has launched an educational, interactive web site designed
to teach kids and their families how to stay active and lose weight in
order to live healthier lives.
Let's Eat Out! Healthful Fast Foods
Description: This brochure provides information on how to eat healthy when choosing fast food.
Let's Eat Out! Making Meals Pleasant
Description: This brochure provides information on how to have a pleasant meals out with your young children.
Nutrition Fact Sheets (Aerican Dietectic Association)
Description: Fact sheets provide nutrition information, healthy eating tips, weight management, and recipes.
Setting the stage: nutrition and physical activity lessons for early childhood settings
Description: This document contains lesson plans with cards for physical activities, nutrition activities, learning center activities and when appropriate, effective use of television to support the overall goals of improved nutrition and physical activities for young children. This activity kit is a companion to the Team Nutrition curriculum for early childhood, Food and Me http://www.iowa.gov/educate/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_download/gid,511/.
- More about "Setting the stage: nutrition and physical activity lessons for early childhood settings"
Description: This document contains an adaptation of Changing the Scene, a resource developed by USDA to help improve nutrition environments in schools, to early childhood settings. It includes a self-assessment checklist to help providers identify what they are doing well and areas for improvement. In addition, the resource includes suggested policies and best practices to promote a healthy nutrition and physical activity environment in the early childhood setting.
Description: This Web site is a searchable collection of government resources about a wide variety of health and nutrition topics.
Description: MyPyramid offers personalized eating plans, interactive tools to help you plan and assess your food choices, and advice to help you: make smart choices from every food group, find your balance between food and physical activity, get the most nutrition out of your calories, stay within your daily calorie needs.
Description: This brochure provides information on how to teach children good food habits.
Description: This newsletter tells the importance of hand washing for children and the whole family. It provides an activity to do with children, to demonstrate the importance of washing correctly.
Together...Let's Try New Foods!!
Description: This brochure provides information on introducing new foods to children.
Trying, Sharing, Enjoying Different Foods
Description: This brochure provides information on ways you can share different foods from many cultures and why that's important for children's self-esteem and pride.
Description: This website introduces the Food Guide Pyramids provided by USDA.
Description: Recipes for great tasting, nutritious meals that young children will love. Revised recipes have been standardized, edited for consistency, analyzed for nutrient content, and updated with CCP information based on the 2005 Food Code Supplement.
Description: Promotes social norms that support physical activity and portray fitness as fun and healthy
Description: Brochure provides important reasons why you should eat breakfast and suggestions for easy breakfasts.
Description: This brochure provides information on healthy snacking including suggestions for healthy snacks for all ages.
– Professional Development –
Feeding Young Children in Group Settings
Description: Feeding Young Children in Group Settings is an educational project designed to help you provide a nurturing feeding environment for children. The project integrates concepts from nutrition, child development, and food safety and presents information about best practices in feeding young children.
This site contains a variety of educational materials, learning activities, and resources for child care providers, Head Start teachers, food service workers, and other professionals who prepare and provide food to young children in group settings.
– Programming Resource –
Building Blocks For Fun and Healthy Meals: A Menu Planner for the Child and Adult Care Food Program
Description: This document contains information on all aspects of meal planning for children in child care programs. Information includes planning to meet children's food needs, CACFP meal patterns, dietary guidelines and good nutrition, meal planning, and record keeping.
Author: Hans, Carol
Description: This publication describes how important it is to have a healthy, economical meal in today's fast moving world. This webpage includes a nutrition quiz, how to eat smart when you don't have time to eat at home, some time saving strategies and a few ideas for lunches to go.
Description: This newsletter series reinforces the importance of the Food Guide Pyramid and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. It contains information especially useful to those participating in the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program. Recipes and meal ideas are included.
No More Apple Juice and Crackers: How to Really Promote Better Nutrition in Childcare
Author: Schwartz, Marlene
Description: This is a powerpoint presentation on how to promote better nutrition in child care that was presented at the Illinois Summit on Early Childhood and Healthy Beginnings.
The program addressed the importance of healthy eating habits in child care, preschool and home settings and provide the latest evidence on economic benefits of early childhood interventions to the community at large.
To listen to the presentation use this URL http://will.illinois.edu/focus580/interview/focus091007b/.
The Illinois Summit on Early Childhood and Healthy Beginnings was hosted by the Family Resiliency Center and The Pampered Chef Programs at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
– Research –
Author: Bowman, Shanthy; Mark A. Pereira, et al.; Cara B. Ebbeling; Steven L. Gortmaker
Description: This research study examined the consumption of fast food on nutritional or health related outcomes. Of the sample, 30.3% children reported consuming fast-food on a typical day. The consumption of fast-food by children in the United States could possibly increase risk of obesity.