Ohio AAP’s An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound toolkit was developed to address the growing epidemic of childhood obesity. The goal of this program is to provide physicians with effective tools to educate parents about prevention strategies to help them make good nutritional and physical activity decisions for their children.
Combining the Ounce of PreventionandPound of Cureinitiatives, the Mealtime and Playtime Learning Collaborative provides tools for physicians to counsel parents of children ages birth to 5 years during well child visits about building a healthy lifestyle around sound nutrition and strong fundamental motor skills, with a focus on how a parent can use mealtime and playtime to encourage their child’s development. The goal of this collaborative is to realize, through physician discussions with families, a shift towards earlier intervention in children at risk for overweight, as well a shift from unhealthy to healthy habits.
Based on the 2007 Expert Committee Recommendations,the Pound of Cure materials were designed to aid clinicians in evaluating, interviewing, educating, tracking and following up with overweight and obese children and their families. This program was designed to support primary care providers with a specific counseling process and the resources to make them optimally effective by providing behavior change techniques as a component of education about core messages. A Pound of Cure has been especially effective for younger children identified as overweight or obese.
