Catholic Health World

Kids 'N Control campaign

St. John's deputizes kids to patrol family nutrition

HOSPITAL SISTERS HEALTH SYSTEM

Children don't write the family grocery list or pick evening meals. But don't underestimate a child's power to influence the family diet. Kids 'N Control, a new public awareness campaign sponsored by St. John's Children's Hospital in Springfield, Ill., may benefit parents by urging children to ask for nutritious meals.

"What we do know is kids really like to be empowered," said St. John's physician Dr. Kemia Sarraf. "The idea is when kids are well-educated, they take those lessons home with them. And there is good evidence that shows child-based initiatives work. 'Seat belts save lives' was a school-based initiative and now every state has a seat belt law. Antismoking and recycling initiatives that started in schools also have made a difference in the ways adults act."

Kids 'N Control is supported by an $87,000 grant from Kohl's Department Stores and features radio, billboard and print ads. An interactive website, www.kidsncontrol.org, that goes live in January will contain nutrition and health tips as well as an exercise log that converts time spent biking, walking and doing other forms of exercise into miles. Children can track their progress along the "Route 66 Race" from Springfield to Hollywood, Calif.

"It gets kids thinking about exercise, and that's what Kids 'N Control is all about," said Sarraf. "We even say it together — 'This is my body, these are my choices, this is my responsibility.' How much they really are in control depends on their age and their families, but one day they are going to be in control so we want to teach them when they are young."

The program is a complement to genH (Generation Healthy) Coalition, another initiative supported by St. John's and founded by Sarraf. GenH offers a variety of programs including student health fairs where elementary students learn to read labels and pick healthy foods. The program reaches 8,760 children from the region's two largest school districts.

"What makes us different is we teach the teachers and the administrators and then we implement the program for them. We are not expecting our schools to do this themselves. We recognize that our school systems don't have the time or the resources to take on one more thing," Sarraf said. "Because we think this is important, we are going to do this for them."

Sarraf and St. John's outreach coordinator Kim Luz also educate teachers about student sleep, nutrition and health and offer ways to incorporate physical activity into everyday lesson plans. The benefits are twofold — students get their hearts pumping and such "kinesthetic" learning improves retention and behavior. For instance, students may jump from number to number on mats as a way to learn multiplication tables.

"Our children are eating a half pound of sugar each day," Sarraf said. "There are not enough words in my vocabulary to tell you how horrifying that is. When teachers begin to see this and understand the relationship between health and academic achievement, they begin to buy in to what we want to do."

Still, some Illinois schools are sedentary almost by default. Although daily physical education is "mandated," the state government has waived the requirement for schools without adequate staff or gyms.

"Unfunded mandates just get ignored," said Sarraf. "We need to decide, is this important to us as a state? If so, we need to come up with the money to do this."

The federal school lunch program relies heavily on processed food, which can be less nutritious than fresh-made offerings. Most districts simply do not have kitchens to make food from scratch. And those that do, struggle to find staff who know how to cook healthy meals on a large scale.

"It's a bureaucracy beyond description," Sarraf said.

Against this backdrop, genH and St. John's are working with schools to improve lunch and snack policies. Efforts include notifying parents about smart breakfast choices and providing parents recipes and grocery lists for healthy meals they can make at home.

Sarraf hopes the combined efforts of Kids 'N Control and genH give kids the power to make the right choices. But ultimately, grown-ups must look out for their children.

"We really live in a culture that is concerned more with what kids want rather than what's good for them," said Sarraf. "It's funny to me the stunned looks I get from parents when I remind them that they are the parent."

Luz said the long-term consequences of permissiveness may be deadly. Studies show this is the first generation of children that may live shorter lives than their parents.

"Parents are going to be burying their children because of things we can prevent today," said Luz. "That's something that pulls us together as a medical center. We need to take a stand."

Correction

A Dec. 1 article on Kids 'N Control, a public awareness campaign, incorrectly stated some information related to campaign partner genH. The genH program is a community coalition that includes

St. John's Children's Hospital in Springfield, Ill. The story and photo package erred in saying genH began at St. John's Children's Hospital. Also, genH founder and administrator Dr. Kemia Sarraf is not a member of St. John's staff as was erroneously stated. St. John's Children's Hospital sponsors the Kids 'N Control campaign.

(Published Jan. 15, 2011)

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