Teaching Life-Long Healthy Habits
COBTH Home ---------------- Introduction ---------------- Resouces ---------------- Public Health Champion ---------------- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center ---------------- Boston Medical Center ---------------- Brigham and Women's Hospital ---------------- Cambridge Health Alliance ---------------- Caritas Carney Hospital ---------------- Caritas Saint Elizabeth's Medical Center ---------------- Children's Hospital Boston ---------------- Dana-Farber Cancer-Institute ---------------- Faulkner Hospital ---------------- Lahey Clinic Medical Center ---------------- Massachusetts General Hospital ---------------- Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary ---------------- Tufts Medical Center ---------------- VA Boston Healthcare System ---------------- COBTH Community Benefits Committee ---------------- COBTH Hospital Cancer Rides ---------------- COBTH Domestic Violence Council		Life-long Martha Eliot patient Yamaris, 33, is determined to give her four daughters the tools to combat childhood obesity and diabetes. With a family history of the illness that touches Martinez’s mother, father, grandmother and aunts and uncles, it’s not about physical appearance – it’s survival. She enrolled her two oldest daughters, Yamaris, 13, and Nathalye, 10, in I’m in Charge (INC), a twice-a-week, six-week program on nutrition and diabetes prevention. INC embraces a multidisciplinary approach to improve nutrition and encourage positive changes in youth and their families. The program helps individuals implement dietary and lifestyle changes through education, motivation, support and empowerment. INC’s success hinges on hands-on activities for the kids rather than traditional classroom lessons. One week the kids are making zucchini bread, another they’re on a grocery store field trip learning to read food labels. The girls then bring that knowledge home to Martinez, who’s made many changes in the way she feeds her family. Whole wheat bread has replaced white bread, sugary cereals are bypassed for something more nutritious, and she encourages the girls to help in the kitchen. “If they participate in the cooking, they’re willing to try different foods. They find it more delicious than ever,” she laughs. Martinez also encourages the girls to eat only when they’re hungry. Meals always start or end with salad to curb second helpings of richer food. But the biggest bonus with INC is that it instills kids with the knowledge to make these good decisions on their own. The I’m in Charge program targets young people ages 9-20 who are overweight or at risk for Type II diabetes and provides them with education, clinical care, and access to other community resources.