What happens when a community pediatrician reaches out to schools, day care centers and medical practices with a message that includes the importance of healthy eating and active living? Dr. Steve Feder of Lincoln Medical Partners Pediatrics and Let’s Go! Physician Champion for the Lincoln County region has been seeing an impact.

Before school was released for summer, Wiscasset Middle School Let’s Go! Champion, Tricia Bursey, invited Feder to speak to the school about the importance of the 0 message in 5-2-1-0: zero sugary drinks.

When Bursey saw a student with a 24-ounce Mountain Dew, candy bar and chips after school one afternoon, she knew she needed to act. Feder welcomed the opportunity to speak about the health impacts of sugary drinks (cavities and weight gain). He even set up a sugar display to show kids the amount of sugar in their favorite beverages; they were surprised to learn that Gatorade contained 34 grams of sugar.

In Maine, more than 26 percent of school age children are overweight or obese, and a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that as a result of this epidemic, children today may have a shorter life expectancy than that of their parents.

For the past three years, the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation has been working with Let’s Go! Healthcare and Maine physician practices like Lincoln Medical Partners Pediatrics to help prevent childhood obesity. Together they are encouraging more than 320,000 children age 18 and under and their families across the state of Maine to eat healthy and stay active.

“We want to help prevent childhood obesity by changing the environments where kids play and learn,” said Harvard Pilgrim Foundation’s president Karen Voci. “Let’s Go! is one of the first programs to engage and motivate families through their doctors, supporting parents in what they already want to do for their kids by putting the 5-2-1-0 goals within the context of staying healthy.”

Feder, along with the other pediatricians in his practice, have helped their patients and other members of the community like the Wiscasset Middle School students and staff, who were all ears during Feder’s presentation, learn these healthy habits. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation’s support has helped bring Let's Go! to more than 140 other practices across the region.

Let’s Go!, a nationally recognized childhood obesity prevention program at The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center, is working with healthcare practices throughout Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, to promote the daily 5-2-1-0 message:

• 5 or more fruits or vegetables
• 2 hours or less recreational screen time
• 1 hour or more of physical activity
• 0 sugary drinks, more water, and low-fat milk

“Conversations about healthy choices are getting easier; children are familiar with the 5-2-1-0 message thanks to the work being done in their day care, schools and after school programs,” said Feder.

Lincoln County is home to ten healthcare provider sites that have registered with Let’s Go!, and 8,000 children are seen by these practices annually, reaching most of Lincoln County’s pediatric population. Let’s Go! teamed up with the Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Foundation to ensure all healthcare sites have access to resources essential to the prevention, assessment, and treatment of childhood obesity.

To aid in a successful conversation between patient, parent and provider Let’s Go! developed a Healthy Habits Questionnaire, customized for different age groups.
“We’re seeing a trend in healthcare practices: more physicians are using our Healthy Habits Questionnaire to start a dialogue about healthy eating and active living,” said Dr. Victoria Rogers, director of Let’s Go!

The questionnaire changes the focus from weight to healthy choices and encourages kids to set their own goals, such as drinking more water. The American Academy of Pediatrics has even adopted the questionnaire for national use.

According to Rogers, all 10 Lincoln County sites use Let’s Go! materials in their practices and to date, eight of them have earned the honor of being named a Let’s Go! Site of Distinction. To be recognized as a Site of Distinction, all providers within the practice must discuss healthy eating and active living with all pediatric patients and families, post the 5-2-1-0 message and measure body mass index.

When Feder is not seeing patients he advocates the benefits of the program among his peers as a Let’s Go! physician champion.

“Dr. Feder’s dedication to obesity prevention with his patients, in the community, and among his colleagues is inspiring and we’re proud to support his work,” added Voci.

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation has also provided $20,000 in grants to school food directors to help create healthier school lunches at elementary schools in Boothbay, Damariscotta and Wiscasset.