UAMS Child Nutrition, Physical Activity Conference Set

By todd

LITTLE ROCK – Internationally recognized nutrition experts will lead the Third Annual Conference on Nutrition and Physical Activity sponsored by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ (UAMS) KIDS FIRST Program on Aug. 4-5 in Hot Springs.


 


The conference, also sponsored by the Arkansas Department of Health, will include workshops on childhood obesity with tips for child health professionals, educators and communities. Medical professional may be eligible for continuing medical education credit. Sessions are open to the public. To register, call 501-364-3620 or 1-800-374-3620, or register online at www.healthierchildren.org.


 


The registration deadline is July 15, and the cost is $85 for professionals and $40 for students. For those attending only one day, the cost is $70 for professionals and $25 for students. Payment for registration after July 15 is $120 for professionals, $100 for students and must be made on site at the Hot Springs Civic and Convention Center.


 


The event’s keynote speaker will be Ellyn Satter, M.S., a licensed social worker, registered dietitian and an internationally recognized authority on child nutrition and feeding. Satter, who has a private psychotherapy practice in Madison, Wis., will speak on “Children, The Feeding Relationship and Weight: An Introduction to the Possibilities in Health Care.” A breakout session geared to child health professionals will follow.


 


Satter’s mission is to revolutionize feeding and eating with some unconventional advice to parents.


 


“As long as adults do their job with feeding, children do a good job with eating,” she says. “They intuitively eat the right amount of food to grow well. They naturally push themselves along to like new foods. We did that, too, at one time. We did, that is, until it was educated out of us by well-meaning adults and misguided, puritanical rules about eating.”


 


KIDS FIRST is a pediatric day health care program operated by the UAMS Department of Pediatrics for children ages 6 weeks to 4 years who have special health care needs and are medically and socially at risk for developmental problems. The conference was funded through a grant by the Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas.


 


The conference also will feature presentations by Zonya Foco, a registered dietitian and child nutrition expert and motivational speaker. Foco will speak on “The Top Four Nutrition Problems Facing Our Kids Today,” and will offer another session on kid-friendly cooking. She is the author of the best-selling cookbook “Lickety-Split Meals for Health Conscious People on the Go.”


 


Other sessions will include:



  • Risk factors for childhood obesity
  • Advice for families, and creating nutrition and fitness messages that make parents stop, listen and want to change
  • An innovative approach for increasing physical activity among preschool and elementary schoolchildren
  • Teaching employees how to reduce health care costs
  • Nutrition and healthy aging
  • Physical fitness for seniors
  • New dietary guidelines
  • Assessing school health environments
  • Lowering health care costs with wellness programs

 


UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, five centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has about 2,200 students and 660 residents and is the state’s largest public employer with almost 9,000 employees. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $4.1 billion a year.


 


UAMS centers of excellence are the Arkansas Cancer Research Center, Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy and Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute.