• Apple slices with peanut butter
• Fruit with low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese
• Banana or grapes with low-fat or fat-free milk
• Smoothie with yogurt, fruit and ice cubes
• Dried fruits like raisins
• Applesauce or fruit cup
• 1 cup of vegetable or bean soup
• 1 cup of hot cereal – like oatmeal
• Small baked potato with salsa
• Hard-boiled eggs with whole grain crackers
• Nuts mixed with dried fruits
• Whole grain crackers with string cheese
• Chopped raw vegetables with low-fat dip
• Celery with peanut butter
• Whole grain cereal with low-fat milk
• Whole grain crackers with low-fat cheese or peanut butter

When should you grab a snack?

Snacking is good for everybody. Your body needs to refuel every 3-4 hours. Eat shortly after you wake up and between breakfast, lunch and dinner. Avoid late-night snacking.

The BEST thing about snacking!

When you pick low-fat, low-calorie options, you’ll boost energy and metabolism though out your entire day!

Here’s more food for thought.

For children living in poverty, we believe health should be a bridge, not a barrier to learning. HealthNet School-Based Services served more than 3,000 students last year with health care and health education services at eight public and charter schools throughout Marion County. With your help, we can do even more this coming school year to keep kids healthy!

What are your kids looking forward to this school year?

World – Meet School-Based Services!

It’s a fact. Kids are more likely to learn and do better in school when they are healthy and attend class regularly. Yet when families don’t have health insurance, their children’s health can suffer. For these kids, health should be a bridge – not a barrier – to learning. That’s why HealthNet’s School-Based Services provided health care and health education to more than 3,100 students last year, through 22,000 visits at eight public and charter schools throughout Indianapolis.

Here are four things you should know about School-Based Services:

1. For many school children in Indy, visits to the nurse’s office are the only health care they will receive.
   School-based clinics like the ones HealthNet operates bring the doctor’s office to the school, so students avoid health-related absences and get support to succeed in the classroom.

   

   photo by Elizabeth Albert

2. School-based clinics are designed to meet the health care needs of students.
   School-based clinics are considered one of the most effective strategies for delivering high quality, comprehensive, and culturally-competent primary and preventive care to children and teens — a population that can be difficult to reach. By offering health and nutrition education, school clinics often are also on the front line in battling childhood obesity.
3. Being located where students spend most of their day enables School-Based Services to see and address factors that impact children’s well-being and academic achievement.
   Health providers outside a school setting may miss these factors. Jennifer and Monique’s stories are two amazing examples.
4. With your help, School-Based Services can do even more to improve the health and safety of students at school and at home.
   There are plenty of ways to get involved.
   
   • Make your child’s school healthier. Try some of these ideas!
   • Ask about the school nurse-to-student ratio at your child’s school. Start the conversation, and help Indy’s great schools become even better!
   • Consider a small gift to School-Based Services. A little bit can go a long way!
   • Raise awareness and tell your friends that you donated to this great program!  Together, we can help all school children in Indianapolis get a GREAT start to LIFE.

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Interested in School-Based Services and want to learn more?
Have ideas on how to make Indy schools healthier?
Comment below!
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In Marion County, the population of children totaled 236,434, and the following are some staggering numbers about our children:

• 24% live in poverty
• Teen birth rate is 35.5 (per 1000 females) – the state rate is 22
• 4,023 child neglect cases were substantiated (increase from 1,853 in ’05)
• 604 physical child abuse cases were substantiated (increase from 466 in ’05)
• 620 sexual child abuse cases were substantiated (DECREASE from 818 in ’05)

Every statistic has increased since 2005 except for sexual child abuse.  This may have something to say about how awareness about sexual abuse against children has risen GREATLY in the past years.  It seems easy to focus on the most extreme case of child abuse, but these other situations harm the child just as much.  It may not be seen physically, but in the long-run, into the child’s adult life, these situations hold them back.

“Children who grow up poor are more likely to earn less as adults, complete fewer years of formal education, and face more health issues than children living in higher-income families.” – from the National Governor’s Association Center for Best Practices

Raising awareness about all of child abuse, child poverty, and even teen pregnancy can lead to better lives for all of Marion County’s youth.  It can lead to better health for the entire community, and it can lead to a better Indianapolis.  Organizations that aim at child abuse prevention are HealthNet’s Better Indy Babies (BIBs) and Healthy Families America (HF) Programs, Prevent Child Abuse America, and the Stop Abuse Campaign.  Do you have an idea to raise awareness about stopping abuse?  Do you have any more helpful resources?  Feel free to comment.

• smoking during pregnancy
• infant having two or more siblings
• Medicaid enrollee
• unmarried
• infant low-birth weight
• less than high school education
• teen mother
• short spacing (under 15 months) between pregnancy
• poor pre-natal care
• adverse outcomes in prior pregnancy

Most of these factors are situations that occur BEFORE the child is born and even before pregnancy.

“Children younger than three years of age are the most likely of all children to become involved with Child Welfare Services, and they have the highest rate of victimization of maltreatment among all age groups.”

Services for at-risk households are crucial to prevent these young children from being neglected and abused.  This report was mainly done to research the possibilities of taking care of these children after they enter Child Welfare Services.  However, there are organizations out there that provide support for families, mothers, and siblings of newborns.

Whenever I hear the word “risk factor” when talking about child abuse and neglect, I become wary.  I think that parents, families, and siblings are in tough situations where stress levels are increased, family history has taught parents in a certain way, and other factors are present.  Having the knowledge of where to find support services and resources is crucial to decreasing stress, breaking family history cycles, and helping in other ways.

Better Indy Babies and Healthy Families America are two resources provided by HealthNet throughout the Indianapolis community.  The staff here provide knowledge and support to families and parents who are pregnant or have children from age birth to 5.  You can help these two resources be of greater service to families in need.  Learn more about what tools are out there or donate directly by clicking here.

In Indiana, a child is abused or neglected every 25 minutes, and most of the time, abuse and neglect can be prevented.  HealthNet’s Better Indy Babies program uses an originally designed outreach model that consists of teams of health care workers which include social workers, registered nurses and community health workers.  These teams are charged with finding pregnant women, determining if the woman is enrolled in prenatal care, and if not, getting them into prenatal care.  The teams are also responsible for providing prenatal health education, support services and linkage to community resources.  This innovative approach is different than public health nursing.  Packaging a select group of interdisciplinary health workers, including community residents, into a team is now a model used in many organizations throughout the nation.

Better Indy Babies (BIBs) works closely with Healthy Families, a program that is part of Prevent Child Abuse America, in order to support at-risk families and provide them with more than education but a resource to lean on.  Poverty, lack of child-rearing education or experience, lack of formal education, and single-parenthood are all risk factors of both infant mortality and child abuse or neglect.

Become an advocate for programs that serve families who just need the comfort knowing that there is support.  Sometimes all it takes is knowing that there is someone there if you need them.  Maybe you can give a child in Indiana a few extra minutes by learning more about BIBs or Healthy Families, spreading awareness of organizations within your community, or donating here.



It is always a challenge for parents to not only get their child ready for the cognitive portion of the classroom but also the social and emotional challenges that come with the environmental change of a new school.  But, watching a child succeed in the classroom is one of the most rewarding things to witness.

Child Trends is a non-profit organization whose mission is “to improve outcomes for children by providing research, data, and analysis to the people and institutions whose decisions and actions affect children.”  A study was done in 2003 that focused on the children in kindergarten and whether or not they lagged behind the average student in the following three areas: health, cognitive skills, and social and emotional skills.  There were trending factors in what made children lag behind in one, two, or all three of these areas.

This report gives an insight into what ENVIRONMENTAL factors might come into play and prevent a child from being on par with his/her peers.  The results showed the following:

1. 63% of all children who lagged behind in all three areas had parents with a relatively low education (a high school diploma, GED, or less).
2. 55% of all children who lagged behind in all three areas lived in households with an income less than $25,000.
3. 33% of all children who lagged behind in all three areas lived in a single parent household.

Healthy Familes America targets these types of families and offers them support in the form of links to community resources and education materials to help with child development.  A case worker sticks with each participating family until the child reaches age 5.  You can help HealthNet’s Healthy Families program by learning more here or donating directly by clicking here.

–Check out the full research publication from Child Trends here [http://www.childtrends.org/Files/AttendingKindergartenRB.pdf]