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Are Children in Child Care Getting Enough Activity? - Tuesday, December 22, 2009
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Several new reports offer a glimpse into the question of whether children in child care settings are getting enough activity and exercise in their day. Good news comes from a new report featured on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website by the American Medical Association; the report finds that publicly funded Head Start programs go beyond the obesity-prevention requirements set out by federal guidelines, for both nutrition and physical activity. However, two other recent studies found that, as a rule, young children in child care settings are not getting enough exercise. According to Reuters, researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle found that child care can double the amount of television kids watch. Researchers in the article, say that some children are watching 5 hours of television a day, without their parents' knowing it--nearly half of the kids' waking hours. Another study, noted on ScienceDaily and featured in the December edition of Pediatrics comes from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It found that, in that state, less than 14 percent of child care centers offer the recommended 120 minutes of active play time. |
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