Over the past several decades, childhood obesity rates have risen dramatically, especially in economically disadvantaged communities. Children who carry excess weight face a number of health problems in childhood, and later as adults.

A number of factors have contributed to this health crisis, and it's going to take a number of approaches and lifestyle changes to help reverse the trend. Some of them require commitments from industry and politicians. But not all of them. Some of them require YOU.

As my kids have grown they have gone from willingly putting anything in their mouths (including crayons!) to being slightly more choosy, and I’ve watched even my most adventurous eater stop eating foods she once liked. Given that I also know that kids need multiple exposures to a food before they “like” it (or even willingly eat it), and that this number increases as children get older, I wanted to have strategies in place to promote + support the skill of tasting.

Nationally, approximately 24% of pre-school aged children are overweight or obese, meaning that they carry excess fat for their height. Overweight children have a two- to tenfold increase in the likelihood that they will also be overweight as adults. Through group well-baby visits, one group in the South Bronx is hoping to set kids on healthy trajectories early in life by focusing more broadly on the foundations of healthy early childhood development.

One thing I have learned over the last seven years as a parent, informed by the previous decade as nutrition researcher and professor, is that knowing WHAT I needed to feed my kids to support and promote their health is not enough.