YMCA Child Care Programs Help Kids Make Healthy Choices at Home

Last year several Y's Kids Before and After School child care sites implemented the CATCH (Coordinated Approach to Child Heath) program in an effort to teach children how to be active and make healthy nutritional choices. The Skagit Valley Family YMCA partnered with the Skagit County Healthy Communities Project, Skagit Valley Hospital, United General Hospital, and Chlidren of the Valley. The impact the program has had on these kids and their families at home is an example of how great an impact the Y can have on your children and our community.

Prior to the program (at the beginning of the year), the kids were given a fitness test and nutritional questionnaire for baseline information. What we found was not encouraging:

• 44% of the children tested were overweight or obese
• 48% were borderline or need to improve their cardiovascular endurance
• 67% are borderline or need work on hamstring flexibility
• 27% and 34% were borderline or needed to work on muscular strength (pull-ups and curl-ups respectively)

Here at the Y, we know we can make lasting personal and social change only by investing in children and our neighbors. The Y, along with other community organizations, worked together and saw some significant changes in behavior and attitude with the CATCH program over the course of four months. Our teachers implemented daily physical activities and/or nutritional education that only taking up 15-30 minutes per day!



Some of the major improvements we saw were:

• More kids eating more fruit! The number of children who reported they ate fruit 3 or more times the day before rose from 19% to 29%! The number of children who said they had no fruit the day before was reduced from 13% to 9%.
• More knowledge! The percentage of children who correctly indicated that they should eat "at least 5" servings of fruit and vegetables each day increased from 34% to 55%!
• Better breakfast! The percentage of children who reported they "almost always or always" eat high fiber cereal increased from 13% to 29%
• Low Fat Milk! Those who choose low fat or skim milk over regular milk increased from 35% to 51%
• Fewer French Fries! Those who choose to cook baked potatoes over French fries increased from 66% to 81%
• Less television! The number of children who watched three or or more shows/videos per week was reduced from 59% to 45%.

Children are taking home what they learn at Y's Kids! One parent reported, "I can hardly believe it, my child is asking for broccoli! She has never asked for vegetables. I couldn't even get her to try them. Now she is asking for them."

Karen Rose, YMCA Area Child Care Director, said, "Children and parents loved this program and looked forward to it. We had one parent arrange their child's schedule to five days a week [of Y's Kids] because their child loved it so much. A parent at one site where we implemented CATCH before school told us that his child gets up in the morning and is so excited to go to the before school program to do CATCH. Definitely children, staff and parents enjoyed all components of this project."

Together, we can make a difference in the quality of life our children have and in the future of our community. For more information about child care at the Y or CATCH, call 360-419-9058.