Childhood Obesity Program Area

RWJF is committed to tackling one of the most urgent threats to the health of our children and families—childhood obesity. Our goal is to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.

Preventing Obesity in the Child Care Setting

December 9, 2009 | Report

Report authors encouraged states to adopt specific regulations for child care, using those developed by a team of experts and included in the report as a guide.

Does Reducing Calories in Foods for Preschoolers Affect How They Eat?

August 30, 2010 | Program Result

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University College of Health and Human Development tested the effect of changes in foods provided by day-care centers to their pre-schoolers.

Child-Care Settings Before Kindergarten are Related to Kids' Obesity

March 22, 2010 | Program Result

Researchers found that children in family, friend and neighbor care the year before kindergarten were more likely to be obese at the start of kindergarten than children in parent care.

Child Care as an Untapped Setting for Obesity Prevention

January 1, 2009 | Journal Article

In addressing the obesity epidemic, the authors examined state policies surrounding diet and screen exposure among different child-care organizations across the United States.

Evaluation of the New York City Day-Care Policy to Prevent Childhood Obesity

September 8, 2009 | Evaluation

The evaluation studies the regulations’ impact on children’s diets and levels of physical activity and the factors affecting implementation of the regulations in New York City's licensed day-care centers.

Healthy Eating Research: Building Evidence to Prevent Childhood Obesity

National Program

To support and disseminate focused investigator-initiated research and policy analysis to identify effective policy and environmental strategies for reversing the rise in childhood obesity by 2015.

Make Every Day a Healthy Day!: Sesame Workshop Distributes Nutrition and Physical Activity Kit to Child-Care Providers Serving Preschoool Children

August 11, 2010 | Program Result

The Sesame Workshop distributed 14,000 copies of the Healthy Habits for Life Child Care Resource Kit in English and Spanish to home-based child care providers to help them integrate nutrition and physical activity into their daily routines.

Effects of Serving High-Sugar Cereals on Children's Breakfast Eating Behavior

January 1, 2011 | Journal Article

Low-sugar cereal served with fruit is found quite acceptable by youth as a breakfast choice.

Tooling up for Healthy Eating and Physical Activity in Child-Care Centers

May 11, 2009 | Program Result

Researchers with the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation in Wisconsin evaluated use of a toolkit designed to help child-care centers prevent overweight among young children by encouraging healthy eating and physical activity.

Healthy Eating Research

April 5, 2013 | Program Result

Healthy Eating Research aims to reduce childhood obesity by funding studies to examine policy and environmental approaches with potential to improve children's diets - especially children in the groups at the highest risk for obesity.