With childhood obesity at an all-time high, Florida Hospital for Children has developed a comprehensive program to help improve kids’ eating habits and affect positive change.

As a pediatrician, Angela Fals, M.D., medical director of the Florida Hospital Center for Child and Family Wellness, has experienced first-hand how childhood obesity adversely affects children’s health. While in private practice, she became frustrated with the prevalence of childhood obesity and felt the need to extend her reach in order to raise awareness. The key to teaching critical life skills to the general public, she believed, was to create a multidisciplinary program that addressed the connection between nutrition, fitness, relaxation, relationships, and body image and how this connection could set the foundation for new and healthier habits.

In 2010, Florida Hospital for Children did just that, creating its Healthy 100 Kids Program, a comprehensive pediatric wellness initiative with the goal of giving kids the best chance of living to a healthy 100 years of age. The program approaches each aspect of physical and mental well-being, not only for children and teens, but also for the family unit when household support is needed to affect change. It also brings together leading medical experts in childhood obesity, nutrition, exercise, and psychology.

More than 300 families in Central Florida have committed to making a radical lifestyle change by enrolling in the program during the past year in order to live longer, healthier lives.  “When you look at the statistics on obesity, you see that this is a critical national issue that needs to be addressed at a local level,” says Linda Chen, executive director of business development for Florida Hospital for Children. “Our goal is to promote healthy lifestyle principles that can be used by schools and other community partners in the region as a shared educational model.”

Developing Lifelong Habits

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years. The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who are obese increased from 7 percent in 1980 to nearly 20 percent in 2008. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who are obese increased from 5 percent to 18 percent over the same period. The National Center for Health Statistics revealed that in 2008 more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese. Recent studies suggest that obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. They are also at a greater risk for diabetes, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems, such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem.

Fals points out that the dietary and physical activity behaviors of children and adolescents are influenced by many sectors of society, including families, communities, schools, child care settings, medical care providers, faith-based institutions, government agencies, the media, the food and beverage industries, and the entertainment industries. “The reality is that our society has made us adopt unhealthy habits,” she explains. “As we educate about nutrition and exercise, we explore the particular issues that families are dealing with and empower them to develop better health habits.”

Subhead: Community Outreach

In order to raise awareness on a grander scale, Healthy 100 Kids has partnered with WebMD, HealthWorks, and Sanford Health to promote the FIT Platform, a concept that breaks fitness down into four areas of life. These pillars of health include:

Food – Healthy eating

Move – Regular physical activity

Mood – Stress reduction and plenty of sleep

Recharge – Emotional well-being

On October 25, hundreds of children from partner schools, churches and community programs joined Florida Hospital for Children to participate in Mission: Fit Possible!, the official kick-off of the “edutainer” program, which combines the four principles of the FIT Program in a fun and engaging way. Kids were able to experience interactive stations that focused on the four pillars of health.

Chen describes this outreach as the natural progression of the program. “During our first year, we wanted to set up a strong clinical platform, which we did by creating a multi-disciplinary team capable of tackling every aspect of childhood obesity,” she explains. “Now it’s time to take the message into the community and engage people. We want to create wrinkles in kids’ minds that make them think about new and healthier ways of doing things.”

She points out that schools play a particularly important role in this process by establishing a safe and supportive environment with policies and practices that support healthy behaviors. Schools also provide opportunities for students to learn about and practice healthy eating and physical activity behaviors.

“This is crucial to the community,” says Cindy Moon, head of the Park Maitland School, which has partnered with Healthy 100 Kids to help raise awareness. “Every school should become involved in this program because it’s important to learn about healthy lifestyles at a young age, and we represent the perfect environment in which to do this. We need to impart healthy lifestyle knowledge to every child because the benefits last for life.”

Fals agrees. “Personally, what gets me up in the morning is seeing a child and a parent put it all together for the better. Once you see habits changing, you know that they will be okay for the rest of their lives, and that is a very satisfying feeling.”

For more information on Florida Hospital for Children’s dynamic program, log on to:

HYPERLINK “http://www.healthy100kids.org” www.healthy100kids.org