Childhood Obesity Resource

The Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development and the Strategic Knowledge Cluster on Early Childhood Development have released the Childhood Obesity: You can help prevent it resource for parents via their Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development.

This resource includes facts on what we know about childhood obesity such as:

• Breastfeeding children for at least 12 months helps protect them against obesity in childhood and teen years.
• Children who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to be unhealthy, have poor eating habits and gain weight.
• Mothers who gain too much weight, smoke and develop diabetes while  they are pregnant are more at risk of having obese children.

The resource also provides health markers and offers ideas about what parents can do to pay attention to  these markers. For example:

• Pay attention to how much sleep your child gets: Wake up your baby for feeding only if s/he sleeps longer than 4 to 5 hours during her/his first month of life; Make sure your child sleeps enough for her/his age.
• Pay attention to how your child eats: Encourage your child to eat slowly; Don’t pressure your child to finish her/his plate when s/he is full.

To access the full resource and print copies for your program participants, please visit  The Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development website.