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Rates of obesity in NSW have tripled over the last 15 years with severe health consequences – being overweight increases your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke. About a quarter of children and young people are now overweight or obese and this percentage is rising.
Over the next five years our Healthy Weight Team aims to increase the percentage of:
- infants and children who are breastfed according to current recommendations.
- children and young people who have food intake in line with current Australian guidelines.
- children and young people who meet guidelines for physical activity and for sedentary behaviour.
Encouraging breastfeeding
This project encourages mothers to breastfeed their babies to at least six months of age by informing them about local services and providing accurate information about breastfeeding. We also work with GPs and other local services to ensure they too help and encourage women to continue to breastfeed.
Working with childcare services
This project has helped childcare services – long day care, family day care and out of school hours care - to improve the food available to children, food safety practices and nutrition policies. The project is now working with out of school hours services to provide an environment that encourages 5-12 year old children to eat healthy food and be more physically active.
Working with schools
Healthy children find it easier to learn and the better their education, the better their health. We support schools, using the Health Promoting Schools framework, to provide safe, healthy and happy environments where children can learn to the best of their ability. Projects to achieve this include:
- 'School Health Incentive Project' (SHIP) – an annual small grants scheme that resources schools for projects to address health issues relevant to their community.
SHIP case studies:
- Fit to learn – a project with two local high schools to help students be more physically active and to encourage them to drink more water.
- School Canteens - we promote the 'Fresh Tastes' NSW Healthy School Canteen Strategy through workshops for school principals and canteen managers.
- Children’s Activity Scan (‘CAS’) – we provide training in the use of the CAS guide so that primary school staff can measure children’s activity levels.
More information
For more information on the Health Promotion Service childhood healthy weight projects, please contact us.
Other program areas
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