Preventing Childhood Obesity in Early Care and Education Programs

Help prevent childhood obesity with thelatest national standards describing evidence-based best practices in nutrition, physical activity, and screen time for early care and education programs.

The standards are for all types of early care and education settings centers and family child care homes.

These updated standards are a part of the new comprehensive Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards: Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs, 3rd Edition.

New in 2nd Edition:
- Updated all MyPyramid references to MyPlate
- Playing Outdoors standard updated

Topics include:

• General nutrition requirements
• Meal and snack patterns
• Requirements for infants including supporting breastfeeding
• Requirements for toddlers and preschoolers
• Meal service and supervision
• Food brought from home
• Nutrition education
• Active opportunities for physical activities
• Outdoor and indoor play time
• Caregivers/teachers encouragement of physical activity
• Screen time limits
• Policies on infant feeding, food and nutrition services, and physical activity