Resources for Higher Education Providers in Child Development and Early Childhood Education Programs

Early childhood provides one of the best opportunities to promote healthy eating and active living among children. In the 2017-2018 school year, 34.1% of 5^th, 7^th, and 9^th grade students attending public schools in San Diego County were overweight or obese. These results highlight the importance of continued efforts in academic programs and school and early childhood settings to promote and provide information on healthy options. Our goal is to ensure that higher education providers have access to quality, evidence-based supplemental curriculum and resources so that students have every opportunity to promote health in their future careers. Below you will find a selection of resources recommended by the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initative’s Early Childhood Domain Workgroup that may be useful as you work to include topics related to childhood obesity, nutrition, and physical activity into your curriculum.

Role Modeling Active Behaviors

Sesame Street’s Healthy Habits for Life Toolkits

Tips for encouraging healthy habits such as physical activity, cards demonstrating fun ways to be active, videos of how to be active with Sesame Street characters, and more!

Choosy Kids – Healthy Habits in the Classroom

Resources to help develop early movement experiences and skills, homemade toys and props, curriculum supplements including movement, and videos demonstrating how moving can be incorporated into regular classroom activities.

Eat Play Grow – Early Childhood Health Curriculum

A variety of lessons on how to incorporate movement into the classroom through music and songs as well as healthy eating.

GoNoodle

Learn how movement can improve behavior, attention, and academic performance through its incorporation into regular lessons such as math, spelling, and vocabulary!

Screen Time Recommendations for Children

CDC Screen Time Infographics

Learn about how much time kids in different age groups (8-10, 11-14, and 15-18) are spending in front of a screen and how they can use that time to be active.

CDC Best Practice Standards for Early Care and Education (e.g, Screen Time)

The CDC outlines their standard for embedding obesity prevention into Early Care and Education systems including recommendations for screen time and examples of how this has been done in different states and communities.

American Academy of Pediatrics – Recommendations for Children’s Media Use

Media and Young Minds

A policy statement detailing the potential harms of media use for infants, toddlers, and preschool children and recommendations for families and professionals.

Media Use in School-Aged Children and Adolescents

A similar statement focusing on the benefits and risks of media use for children ages 5 through 18 as well as current recommendations for this age group.

Healthy Child Care – Screen-Time Reduction Toolkit for Child Care Providers

Recommendations, why excessive screen time can be unhealthy, and how child care providers can limit screen time in their homes/facilities.

Healthy Kids, Healthy Future – Limit Use of TV, Computers and Mobile Devices

Benefits of less screen time and best practices for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

USDA and HHS Nutrition and Wellness Tips – Limit Screen Time

Guidelines and how to limit screen time.

Farm to Early Care and Education

Farm to Preschool – Harvest of the Month

Curriculum and training manuals designed by Occidental College to implement Farm to Preschool for children ages 3-5 in any type of child care setting.

CA Harvest of the Month Farm to Preschool Curriculum (English)
CA Harvest of the Month Farm to Preschool Curriculum (Spanish)
CA Farm to Preschool Training Manual
Visit the site HERE for additional resources!

USDA – Grow It, Try It, Like It!

Garden-themed nutrition education tools for child care center staff and operators at family child care settings that focuses on introducing children to fruits and vegetables.

Grow It, Try It, Like It! Nutrition Education Kit Featuring MyPlate

Nutrition education for child care center staff.

Grow It, Try It, Like It! Fun with Fruits and Vegetables at Family Child Care

Designed for Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) operators to provide nutrition education to children ages 3 to 5.

Farm to Childcare Curriculum Package

Curriculum for child care center staff designed to connect young children to fresh, healthy foods and help them learn about food, farming, healthy habits, gardening, and more!

Farm to Early Childhood Programs: A Step-By-Step Guide

A resources with steps for helping early childhood program providers purchase and use local foods for their meals and snacks.

Support for Breastfeeding and Proper Breast Milk Storage

Breastfeeding-Friendly San Diego Training Videos

A series of breastfeeding-friendly childcare training resources including videos and resource documents on the benefits of breastfeeding, creating a breastfeeding-friendly childcare, handling and storing breast milk, and paced bottle feeding.

USDA – WIC Resources

Several resources to help breast milk storage and breastfeeding support.

CDC Resources

Guidelines for nursing mothers and caretakers to store breast milk and resources to support breastfeeding mothers.

Proper Breast Milk Storage

Support for Breastfeeding

The CDC Guide to Strategies to Support Breastfeeding Mothers and Babies – (Strategy 6: Support for Breastfeeding in Early Care and Education)

Breastfeeding-Friendly San Diego – Breastfeeding-Friendly Practices in Childcare

Resources to assist in the development of a breastfeeding-friendly environment.

Developing Feeding Plans for Infants

Ellyn Satter Institute – Resources for Professionals

A variety of resources for professionals including teaching materials, articles, books, videos, and more focusing on child and adult feeding and eating.