A new dialogue-based curriculum combines nutrition, active play and parenting practices to help parents and caregivers gain skills that promote healthy habits for themselves and their families and to create healthy environments where children live, learn, and play. Graduates report significant improvements in behaviors that promote healthy weights…

The birth of a child can be a simultaneously joyous and challenging time for families. Virtually all parents will struggle with the enormous physical and emotional demands of parenting a very young child, but for too many California families those challenges are additionally compounded by poverty, housing instability, lack of social support, or…

The issue of early childhood trauma is becoming more prominent in early childhood policy discussions, driven by a growing recognition of the potentially devastating impacts of trauma and violence on infants, toddlers, and families. This article provides facts about the impacts of trauma and other adverse early experiences on child health and…

Childhood obesity has become a major health problem. Approximately 17 percent of U.S. children six to 17 years of age are obese--that is, their sex-and-age-specific Body Mass Index (BMI) is at or above the 95th percentile. This proportion is two-and-a-half times higher than it was 25 years ago. Obesity during childhood often carries into…

Community participation in program decision-making and implementation is an ideal that community and academic stakeholders aspire to in participatory research. This ideal, however, can be difficult to achieve. We describe lessons learned about community participation from a quasi-experimental trial aimed at reducing the uptake of smoking among…

This report examines some of the ways a sample of Pennsylvania health care providers participating in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) strive to ensure that the children they serve make use of preventive health care. The report also identifies how managed care organizations or benefits administrators contracting with the…

Since its inception as a public-private partnership in 1982, the Ounce of Prevention Fund (OPF) has cultivated promising ideas in early childhood development, has used private funding to test the ideas in real life settings, and has leveraged public funding to support and expand innovative programs that advance the health and well-being of…

Reports on an interorganizational collaboration in which a community-based service network of family support programs to help prevent child abuse and neglect was implemented. Presents a theoretical framework for understanding community-based networks and interorganizational collaboration and describes and analyzes how collaboration was used to…

As part of its work in improving the lives and life changes of children in the Philadelphia region, the Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth examined the problem of local childhood lead paint poisoning. This report describes their efforts, beginning with a description of the impact of lead poisoning on children's health and a discussion of…

Noting that lead poisoning is a preventable disease, this report details a coordinated federal program to eliminate childhood lead poisoning in the United States. The report describes how lead poisoning harms children, how pervasive lead poisoning is, and how lead paint hazards in housing could be eliminated in 10 years. Following information on…

In Louisiana, it is estimated that almost 33% of school-age children are at risk for becoming overweight or are already overweight (Louisiana Office of Public Health, 2004). Studies have shown that poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and weight problems often associated with being overweight adversely affect academic performance in school…

The first of a series of hearings on child health issues was held in an effort to obtain a better understanding of the causes of the United States' low rank among industrial nations on indices of child health and prosperity and of models other nations use to improve children's health care, access to delivery systems, and cost containment. Contents…

Founded in 1961, the Academy for Educational Development (AED) is an independent, nonprofit, charitable organization that operates development programs in the United States and throughout the world. This directory presents an overview of the AED programs in Africa since 1975. Current AED Programs include: (1) HIV/AIDS Prevention and Impact…

Since its inception 20 years ago as a public-private partnership, the Ounce of Prevention Fund (OPF) has cultivated promising ideas in early childhood development, has used private funding to test those ideas in real life settings, and has leveraged public funding to support and expand innovative programs that advance the health and well-being of…

This journal issue is devoted to the many problems faced by children with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) who live in both developing and developed countries. Section 1 provides general information on the pandemic, defining AIDS and exploring the social aspects of the disease. It also addresses child health, child mortality, moral and…