Nemours Health & Prevention Services (NHPS)

Our Goal: Healthy, Happy Kids

At Nemours, our mission is simple: To enhance the quality of health and health care for children.

We focus on practices and programs that allow children and families to live healthier lives. We actively work with people who influence the well being of children (families, policy makers, government officials, community leaders, educators, and businesses) to help make kids the healthiest in the nation, both physically and emotionally. Our vision is to educate and provide health information and encourage wellness development for all kids.

We're dedicated to:

• Fostering physical and emotional wellness as well as creating positive changes in children.
• Adopting and spreading the use of tried-and-true policies and programs
  that promote healthy living for children and families in our own backyard
  and beyond.
• Sharing our data and research findings so that our knowledge can help contribute to the fields of childrens’ health and healthcare.
• Advocating for social, environmental, and behavioral change where even small steps can make a big difference today, and far into the future.

Physical and Mental Fitness for All Children

When kids are emotionally and physically fit, they’re better able to face life’s challenges, make healthy choices, develop good self-esteem, and build strong bodies and strong relationships.

Through our efforts and research, we’ve found that kids can be at their best when they:

• Breastfeed from birth through at least 12 months old
• Eat healthy: more fruits and vegetables and less sugary drinks
• Are physically active each and every day
• Get enough sleep (based on the child’s age and developmental stage)
• Develop strong social skills and positive relationships with their peers and the adults in their lives
• Gain self-confidence and self-control
• Learn life skills like decision making, goal setting, and conflict resolution

Nemours Florida Prevention Initiative

Our Goal: Helping Children Grow Up Healthy and Ready to Learn

To advance children’s health, Nemours extends health prevention efforts into the communities it serves.

The Nemours Florida Prevention Initiative works with the community to share healthy lifestyle messages with children and families. Targeted health promotion and disease prevention programs help child care providers, educators, health professionals, and community advocates teach children and their families positive health habits that can last a lifetime.

Our Programs:

• Engage Nemours experts to help the community provide healthy environments where children live, learn, and play.
• Collaborate with community partners to share resources to promote healthy lifestyles in children’s health care.
• Guide early childhood programs to achieve best practices that promote a healthy lifestyle.
• Evaluate and conduct research to generate new knowledge that leads the advancement of children’s health promotion.
• Advocate for social, environmental, and behavioral change where even small steps can make a big difference today, and far into the future.

Young Children Can Have Fun While Learning About Healthy Eating

Early childhood is a period when children learn lifelong habits. Nemours Florida Prevention Initiative partners with early childhood experts to provide interactive ways for child care providers to teach healthy eating and physical activity
to children.

Remarked one child care provider, “The children were at lunch and were telling me which foods were an “anytime” food and which were a “sometimes” food. It was so incredible to see the children discussing this.”

A child care director commented, “Parents are mentioning that children are coming home talking about fruits and vegetables.”

Partnering for a Healthier Future for Kids

Nemours collaborates and has been an influential partner for various national initiatives and organizations to promote healthy habits in children.

Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA)
Seeking private sector commitments to address obesity. PHA recently announced a commitment from Bright Horizons, one of the nation’s largest child care providers, to Let’s Move! Child Care.

Collaborate for Healthy Weight
A national initiative where primary care
providers, public health professionals, and leaders of community-based organizations work together, using quality improvement methods to reverse the obesity epidemic in communities across the country.

Let’s Move! Child Care
A new national initiative to encourage child care providers to voluntarily adopt higher nutrition and physical activity standards.

Healthy Kids, Healthy Future: created in order to prevent childhood obesity starting in the early child care setting. Learn about current nutrition policy ideas and discussions around childhood obesity efforts on the federal, state and
local levels.

KidsHealth.org
(created by the Nemours Center for Children's Health Media) is the most-visited website in the world devoted to children's health and development at every age and stage.