Summary
Childhood obesity is one of the most important public health issues facing Australia, with approximately 23% of 2-3 year olds and 21% of 4-5 year olds being overweight or obese.
Early childhood is an important period to establish healthy eating and physical activity behaviours, and accordingly provides a critical time to implement obesity prevention initiatives. Evidence not only highlights the importance of early intervention at this time but also the willingness of early childhood services to implement obesity prevention programs.
Centre-based early childhood services are important settings for promotion of healthy eating and physical activity and the prevention of unhealthy weight gain; and research suggests that obesity prevention interventions can produce significant changes in children’s unhealthy food intake, physical activity skills