It Starts With Early Child Care

Why Early Childhood and Child Care?
As children age their habits solidify. Good nutrition and plenty of physical activity are key to a young child’s growth and development.  The early years of childhood  – from birth to age 5 – is a critical period for the development of these healthy behaviors that can have a lifelong impact on a child’s quality of life.

Many children are in a childcare setting, often for several hours each day. Because of this, the child care environment and providers play an important role in helping the children in their care develop healthy eating and physical activity habits that will last a lifetime.

What We Do
The goal of Let’s Go!’s Early Childhood work is to bring about environmental and policy changes that support healthy eating and physical activity. We aim to do this in multiple settings that reach children from birth to age 5.

Because Let’s Go!’s Early Childhood area focuses on child care settings, the program is called 5210 Goes to Child Care. Let’s Go! uses this program to support child care providers in raising a healthier generation of children. 5210 Goes to Child Care is based upon the ten 5210 strategies listed below, and uses a 6-step process to guide child care programs in creating an environment that supports healthy eating and physical activity for the children in their care.

  1. Provide healthy choices for snacks and celebrations; limit unhealthy choices.
  2. Provide water and low fat milk; limit or eliminate sugary beverages.
  3. Provide non-food rewards.
  4. Provide opportunities for children to get physical activity every day.
  5. Limit recreational screen time.
  6. Participate in local, state, and national initiatives that promote healthy eating and active living.
  7. Engage community partners to help support and promote healthy eating and active living at your site.
  8. Partner with and educate families in adopting and maintaining a lifestyle that supports healthy eating and active living.
  9. Implement a staff wellness program that includes healthy eating and active living.
  10. Collaborate with Food and Nutrition Programs to offer healthy food and beverage options.

5210 Goes to Child Care’s 6-step process was adapted  from Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (NAP SACC) and uses a modified version of the Let’s Move! Child Care Checklist to help child care providers assess their current practices. Participating programs are provided with a comprehensive toolkit, access to online resources, free staff trainings, and one-on-one technical assistance to help them implement the 5210 message into daily activities.

 To get your child care program involved or for more information, contact your local Let’s Go! representative.