DHHS Secretary Aldona Wos urged pediatricians and other health professionals to find ways to incorporate technology as part of the solution to the challenge of keeping North Carolina children healthy.

Her admonition came at the Early Childhood Obesity Summit, held last week in Raleigh. Wos said that while the Medicaid reform she and her staff have been working on is an enormous challenge, so is obesity, particularly among children.

“We were number one in the world in obesity until this past summer when we dropped to number two among developed nations,” she said. “Now we are behind Mexico. “ In 2013, America’s Health Rankings had North Carolina 33^rd for diabetes and 33^rd for obesity.

“My goodness, of the children our state serves directly through our WIC program, over 30,000 were obese or overweight. That is over 30 percent.”

Wos put the cost of obesity in North Carolina at more than $17 billion in medical costs and lost productivity. “It’s imperative that all of us are invested in having healthier citizens and healthier children,” she said.

She highlighted an example of technology used to address the problem. A voluntary effort is under way in Buncombe and Pitt counties to reach out to mothers who receive nutrition benefits through WIC via an application on their cellphones. The program, called “What’s On My Plate,” provides the mothers with educational materials and recipes to reinforce healthy eating.

Participants download a free app which they may use to take pictures of the healthy food they have prepared, and then write a message about it. When they return to WIC for their next appointment, a nutritionist prints out their photo and message and provides feedback.

“I challenge all of you here – seek out ways to incorporate technology as part of the solution to the challenge of keeping our children healthy,” she said. “Our obesity epidemic did not happen overnight, and it can’t be solved in a year, or in four years.”

Wos said that government alone cannot provide the solution. “It starts with personal responsibility and good parenting,” she said. Wos encouraged medical professionals to help through collaboration with the state as well as families and communities. “We must do this for our children, and for the future of our state.”