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Nutrition in Children and Adolescents
Knowledge Path

Introduction

This knowledge path about child and adolescent nutrition has been compiled by the MCH Library at Georgetown University. It offers a selection of current, high-quality resources that analyze data, describe public health campaigns and other promotion programs, and report on research aimed at identifying promising strategies for improving nutrition and eating behaviors within families, schools, and communities. Separate sections of the knowledge path presents resources about child care and early childhood education, food safety, food marketing to children, and food security and nutrition assistance programs. Separate briefs point to resources for families and schools. This knowledge path will be updated periodically.

Resources for Professionals

Overview

See the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issue brief, Nutrition and the health of young people, rev. ed. (2007). This brief provides data and facts about nutrition and eating behaviors among children and adolescents and the relationship of these behaviors to disease and academic performance.

Websites

• Adolescent Nutrition. Contains resources for health professionals, educators, and students about adolescent nutrition and eating disorders. This online resource is presented by Jane Mitchell Rees, Ph.D., R.D., C.D., at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine with support from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).
  
  
• Agricultural Research Service (ARS). Contains program summaries, action plans, and annual reports about its Human Nutrition National Program, of which the Children's Nutrition Research Center (CNRC) is a part. ARS is responsible for the National Agricultural Library (NAL) and its online catalog, AGRICOLA. Other resources include
  
  National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. Lists nutrients for more than 7,500 food items. Includes a portion-modifier option. The database is a service of the ARS Nutrient Data Laboratory (NDL). NDL also offers reports about single nutrients and the nutritive value of foods; measurement-conversion tables; food-composition publications; and journal articles.
  
  
• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): Nutrition. Contains pediatric nutrition resources on topics that include sports nutrition, breastfeeding, starting solid foods, calcium intake, anemia, obesity and overweight, and managing high blood pressure. Resources include growth charts, policy statements, clinical practice guidelines, patient-education materials, and texts.
  
  
• American Heart Association (AHA): Healthier Kids. Provides information about programs that aim to improve nutrition and physical activity in children and adolescents in homes, schools, and communities.
  
  
• Association of State and Territorial Public Health Nutrition Directors (ASTPHND). Offers news, meeting and professional-development information, and resources about public health nutrition that include
  
  Moving to the Future: Tools for Planning Nutrition and Physical Activity Programs. Presents resources to develop successful community programs that promote healthy eating and physical activity. Includes instructions for conducting a community assessment, writing objectives, developing a plan, and evaluating programs; forms, surveys, and worksheets that can be adapted to a community program; and discussion forums.
  
  
• Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP). Contains reports, journal articles, dietary-guidance materials, food plans, web-based training, and symposium proceedings. Resources and initiatives include

  Dietary guidelines for Americans. Provides background materials and information about how to apply the guidelines, which emphasize healthy eating and physical activity to maintain a healthy weight. Links to the current Dietary guidelines for Americans, 7th ed. (2010) and accompanying material.

  Expenditures on children by families. A series of annual reports that provide estimates on the cost of raising children from birth to age 17.

• Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI): Nutrition Policy. Offers articles, reports, and model legislation about improving child and adolescent nutrition. Initiatives include efforts to decrease the marketing of low-nutrition foods to children, improve school foods, improve food safety, and educate children about healthy foods.
  
  
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Contains a wealth of nutrition resources and initiatives that include

  CDC's Guide to Community Preventive Services. Contains information about a systematic review of studies to develop recommendations for population-based interventions addressing nutrition.

  CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Provides data about nutrition and diet in the United States, including results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Resources include

  • CDC growth charts: United States (2000). Contains tools and background information for plotting the growth of infants, children, and adolescents through age 20. CDC and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) developed two sets of self-directed, interactive training modules for health professionals using the pediatric growth charts in clinical and public health settings. Topics for one set of modules include background information about the rationale for changes in the revised charts; using and interpreting the body-mass-index-for-age charts; and recommendations to screen, assess, and manage overweight in children and adolescents. Topics for the second set of modules include accurate measuring (equipment and technique) and using the growth charts with various populations, such as adolescents and children with special health care needs.

  CDC's Nutrition and Physical Activity Program: Nutrition Resources for Health Professionals. Contains data and statistics; information about programs and campaigns, including state-based nutrition and physical activity programs; nutrition guidelines; and tools for planning, implementing, and evaluating nutrition-intervention programs. Also presents state legislative information and results from the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System (PedNSS).

  CDC's Public Health Training Network. Contains distance-learning resources for public health professionals on a variety of topics, including nutrition.

  Also see CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH).

• Children's Nutrition Research Center (CNRC). Contains a wealth of resources about nutrition for pregnant and nursing women and for infants, children, and adolescents. Resources include research and training information, articles, an interactive healthy eating calculator, an electronic newsletter, downloadable healthy eating posters for schools, and links to nutrition-related websites and electronic publications. CNRC is a cooperative venture between the Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
  
  
• Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC). Provides databases and resource lists with links to reports, policy statements, websites, electronic discussion groups, and other information tools on a wide range of food and nutrition topics for health and education professionals. Presents a selection of resources about lifecycle nutrition with sections about child nutrition and health and adolescence. Topic-specific information services include the Healthy Meals Resource System (HSMRS) and WIC Works Resource System.
  
  
• Healthy People 2020. Information about this national health-promotion and disease-prevention initiative of the Department of Health and Human Services. View the overview, objectives, and recommended interventions and resources for nutrition and weight status and food safety.
  
  
• Institute of Medicine: Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) Research Synthesis. Presents information about understanding and using the DRIs, a set of values that serve as standards for nutrient intakes for healthy persons in the United States and Canada. The DRIs cover 46 nutrient substances, and the DRI values are developed for different genders and age groups, including infants, children, adolescents, and pregnant and breastfeeding women. Information is presented in tables, reports, and in the eight-volume set.
  
  
• Leadership, Education and Training (LET) Program in Maternal and Child Nutrition. Contains web-based curricula and training information about maternal and child health (MCH) nutrition for nutrition professionals and other health professionals who work with women, infants, children, and adolescents. Curricula topics include public health nutrition, childhood obesity, health disparities, and connecting with pregnant adolescents. LET is part of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota and is funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).
  
  
• Maternal and Child Health Training Program: Nutrition Grantees Collaborative Web Site. Offers information about eight university-based MCH nutrition training programs. Presents information about grantee resources, meetings and conferences, and position announcements. The training program is part of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).
  
  
• National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP): Healthy Eating and Activity Together (HEAT). Presents an evidence-based clinical practice guideline and resource kit for this initiative to improve child health through culturally appropriate and strength-based interventions that build the family's ability to achieve the ideal balance between nutrition and physical activity to support optimal growth and wellness.
  
  
• Weight-Control Information Network (WIN). Offers publications and research information about nutrition, physical activity, and overweight and obesity. Publications are available in English and Spanish. WIN is an information service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
  

Additional Electronic Publications

• Leadership for Healthy Communities. 2007. Improving access to healthy foods: A guide for policy-makers. Washington, DC: Leadership for Healthy Communities. [Report].
  
  
• McCann B. 2006. Community design for healthy eating: How land use and transportation solutions can help. Princeton, NJ: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. [Paper].
  
  
• Mikkelsen L, Chehimi S. 2007. Links between the neighborhood food environment and childhood nutrition. Oakland, CA: Prevention Institute. [Paper].
  
  
• National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). 2006. Building strong bones: Calcium information for health care providers. Rockville, MD: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. [Guide].
  
  
• Story M, Holt K, Sofka D, eds. 2002. Bright Futures in practice: Nutrition, 2nd ed. Arlington, VA: National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health (NCEMCH). [Guidelines]. Also see Bright Futures in practice: Nutrition pocket guide (2002) and Bright Futures nutrition: Family fact sheets (2002).
  
  
• White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity. 2010. Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation: Report to the President. Washington, DC: Executive Office of the President of the United States. [Report].
  

Databases

See the following set of MCH Library resource briefs to identify additional data and statistics, literature and research, and programs about child and adolescent nutrition.

• Maternal and Child Health Data and Statistics
• Maternal and Child Health Literature and Research Databases
• Maternal and Child Health Programs Databases
  

Electronic Newsletters and Online Discussion Groups

• Children's Nutrition Research Center (CNRC): Nutrition and Your Child. This quarterly electronic newsletter offers research-based information to those interested in the nutritional care and feeding of infants, children, and adolescents.
  
  
• Food and Nutrition Information Center: Listservs and Blogs. This annotated list links to electronic discussion groups and blogs about child care and school food service; food stamps; general food and nutrition topics; and health and physical activity.
  
  
• Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) News Digest. This weekly electronic newsletter highlights news about hunger, nutrition, and poverty.
  

Resources for Families

• See the MCH Library family resource brief Nutrition in Kids and Teens.
  

Resources for Schools

• See the MCH Library school resource brief Nutrition Education and School Meals.
  

Resources on Specific Aspects of Nutrition

Child Care/Early Childhood Education
Food Marketing to Children
Food Safety
Food Security and Nutrition Assistance Programs

Child Care/Early Childhood Education

• Healthy Meals Resource System (HMRS): Child Care Providers. Contains training materials, news, recipes, and other resources for child care providers about planning and preparing nutritious meals and food safety. The Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) developed HMRS as the training and technical-assistance component of Team Nutrition.
  
  
• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Public Health Association (APHA), and National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care. 2011. Caring for our children: National health and safety performance standards—Guidelines for out-of-home child care, 3rd ed. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association. [Manual]. Nutrition and food service are addressed.
  
  
• Healthy Eating Research. 2007. Promoting good nutrition and physical activity in child-care settings. Minneapolis, MN: Healthy Eating Research. [Research brief].
  
  
• National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Resource Center. 2006. Physically healthy and ready to learn. Washington, DC: National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Resource Center. [Paper].
  

Food Marketing to Children

• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): Media Matters Campaign. Contains information and program materials about this effort to help pediatricians, parents, and children become more aware of the influence that media has on child and adolescent health, including nutrition.
  
  
• Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI): Decrease Marketing of Low-Nutrition Foods to Children. Offers articles and reports about improving child and adolescent nutrition by decreasing the marketing of low-nutrition foods to children.
  
  
• Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH). Offers an online database of research articles examining the relationship between media exposure and health-risk behaviors, including poor nutrition. To identify articles on the topic, type nutrition in the Words field. Narrow your search by adding a publication date or age group. CMCH is a joint project of Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health.
  
  
• Media-Smart Youth: Eat, Think, and Be Active! Offers a web-based health-promotion program designed to help young adolescents (ages 11 to 13) become aware of how media may influence their nutrition and physical activity choices. A variety of activities encourage participants to make healthy snack choices. Each lesson includes a snack break during which adolescents learn to make a nutritious snack and receive a recipe to take home and share with their families. This after-school program was developed by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
  
  
• Mikkelsen L, Merlo C, Lee V, Chao C. 2007. Where's the fruit? Fruit content of the most highly-advertised children's food and beverages. Oakland, CA: Prevention Institute. [Report]. Also see Setting the bar: Recommendations for food and beverage industry action (2007) and When will there be fruit? One year later: Fruit content of the most highly-advertised children's foods and beverages (2008).
  
  
• McGinnis JM, Gootman JA, Kraak VI, eds. 2006. Food marketing to children and youth: Threat or opportunity? Washington, DC: National Academies Press. [Book].
  
  
• Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health. 2007. Food for thought: Television food advertising to children in the United States. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). [Report, Webcast]
  
  
• Weiss S. 2007. Adolescent exposure to food advertising on television: Research highlight. Princeton, NJ: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. [Research brief].
  

Food Safety

• Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Home Food Safety. Offers tips, teaching tools, Spanish-language materials, statistics, and other resources about foodborne illness and safe food handling at home.
  
  
• Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI): Food Safety. Offers articles, reports, consumer tips, outbreak alerts, and model legislation about food safety.
  
  
• Fight Bac! Presents information and materials about safe food handling practices needed to keep food safe from bacteria and prevent foodborne illness. Fight Bac! is an initiative of the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE).
  
  
• Food Safety Information Center (FSIC). Offers information about food safety to health and education professionals, consumers, and the food industry. Topics include pathogens and contaminants, sanitation and quality standards, emergency preparedness and management, food preparation and handling, and food processing and technology. FSIC is a service of the National Agricultural Library (NAL).
  
  
• www.FoodSafety.gov. Links to selected government food-safety-related information, including food safety alerts and recalls.
  
  
• Becker GS, Porter DV. 2007. Federal food safety system: A primer. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service. [Report].
  
  
• Institute of Medicine (IOM), Forum on Microbial Threats. 2006. Addressing foodborne threats to health: Policies, practices, and global coordination. Workshop summary. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. [Report].
  
  
• Nesheim MC, Yaktine AL., eds. 2006. Seafood choices: Balancing benefits and risks. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. [Report].
  
  
• World Health Organization (WHO), Department of Food Safety, Zoonoses and Foodborne Diseases (FOS). 2006. Five keys to safer food manual. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization (WHO). [Training manual].
  
  
• See Healthy People 2020 and the Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) Databases.
  

Food Security and Nutrition Assistance Programs

• Children's Health Watch. Presents reports and articles about the impact of economic conditions and public policies on the health and well-being of infants and children from birth to age 3 from families with low incomes. Nutrition is addressed. Children's Health Watch is a non-partisan research and public policy center led by a national network of pediatricians and public health researchers.
  
  
• Economic Research Service (ERS). Contains economic information, research, and publications on topics that include diet, health, safety, and food-and-nutrition-assistance programs.
  
  
• Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). Contains program information and resources about its nutrition-assistance programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), the School Meals Program, and the Summer Food Service Program. Initiatives include

  Loving Your Family Feeding Their Future: Nutrition Education Through the Food Stamp Program. Provides educational and promotional materials and techniques to help nutrition educators in their work with Food Stamp Program (FSP) participants and eligibles.

  Also see FNS' Team Nutrition.

• Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). Contains news, legislative information, research, an electronic newsletter, and program information and materials about hunger and federal food assistance programs. FRAC advocates at the national, state, and local level for more effective public and private policies to eradicate domestic hunger and undernutrition.
  
  
• National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP): Data Tools. Offers several databases containing national and state statistics on the income status, education level, family structure, and employment status of families and children; information about state and federal policies that assist families and children with low incomes, such as nutrition-assistance programs; a family resource simulator that simulates the impact of federal and state work-support benefits on the budgets of families with low to moderate incomes, and an income converter.
  
  
• Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Contains program information and data, eligibility criteria, publications, and state agency contact information for this program that serves to safeguard the health of low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, infants, and children from birth to age 5 who are at nutritional risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care. WIC is administered by the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).
  
  
• WIC Works Resource System. Contains nutrition service tools for health and nutrition professionals serving in WIC. Resources include an online training course, an educational and training materials database, WIC-related reports and program information, and state WIC agency materials. WIC Works is a joint project between the Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC), the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), and the University of Maryland.
  
  
• Also see Healthy People 2020, the Child Trends DataBank, the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System (PedNSS), AGRICOLA , and the Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) Databases.
  

Related MCH Library Resources

• Community Services Locator: An Online Directory for Finding Community Services for Children and Families knowledge path
• Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents knowledge path, family resource brief, school resource brief
• Physical Activity and Children and Adolescents knowledge path, family resource brief, school resource brief
  

Nutrition in Children and Adolescents: Knowledge Path, 5th ed. (April 2008). (Updated: February 2012).
Author: Susan Brune Lorenzo, M.L.S., MCH Library.
Reviewers: Meredith Bruening, R.D., Leadership Education and Training Program in MCH Nutrition at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health; Stephanie Heim, Leadership Education and Training Program in MCH Nutrition at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health; Olivia Pickett, M.A., M.L.S., MCH Library; Jane Mitchell Rees, Ph.D., R.D., C.D., Maternal Child Health Program and Adolescent Medicine Section at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine; Jamie Stang, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., University of Minnesota, School of Public Health; Bridget L. Wardley, M.S., R.D., Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, New York University.
Editor: Ruth Barzel, M.A., MCH Library.