I have a 2 yr. old, and before she started walking, I used to carry her all over the house, up and down the stairs. I remember having her with me while I attended to my chores like vacuuming . It definitely felt like a workout to me, and despite putting a stop to my regular gym visits, my muscle definition didn’t suffer during that time (we won’t speak about the rest of my body ). Well, a study done by Dr. Kelli O’Neill says to not count on the workout of chasing your kids to help you lose weight or get in shape. Most moms, the study found, overestimate how many calories they actually burn playing with their kids if they don’t put in an actual formal workout.

The study isn’t exhaustive by any means, with only 58 moms with kids under 6 were included in the study. Of those 58, only a third of the moms ended up receiving the recommended 30 mins a day of physical exertion, though most actually exerted one hour’s worth of activity. The level of activity was monitored by an electronic device they wore for a week. Afterward, the moms also filled out a questionnaire.

Of the moms who were getting the recommended 30 min. daily moderate/intense workout, some were actually making time for working out in the form of sports and other formal exercise. Many moms were surprised that they were way off in their estimate, especially after considering how tired they felt at the end of the day.

Guideline for Physical Activity

The federal recommendation for adults is 2 hrs. and 30 mins. of moderate aerobic activity a week with at least 1/2 of that time spent performing intense aerobic activity. To break it down, you need at least 30 mins of moderate-intense activity, or 15 mins of intense activity 5 times a week.

How Does a Mom Find Time to Workout?

• You can go to the usual gym, and leave your kids in the kids’ station, but I know many moms will find all that driving to be a chore. There are also moms who don’t find leaving their kids with strangers appealing, and still many gyms who don’t offer childcare.

• Next option is to work out at home, but one’s house often has so many distractions in the form of the couch, your kids, even your husband and it’s easy to end up in front of the TV watching your favorite show other than that fitness DVD.

• Consider stroller stride. There are formal stroller stride classes out there, but you can easily set one up with your neighbor, friend, members of your Moms Group.
  • The basics: you work out pushing your baby with other moms or even dads, and all you need is a pair of walking/running shoes and the one piece of equipment you probably already have: your baby’s stroller.

  Some mothers opt to buy a special jogging stroller if you’re planning to go on terrain other than the sidewalk. But if you’re planning to simply walk and not run, a regular, well-built stroller should be fine.

• Get a bike trailer and attach it to your bike. Take a ride around the neighborhood with the added resistance of your kids’ weight.

• Go to workouts that encourage and welcome baby involvement. There’s a Yoga Mama teacher in my own Moms Group, which welcomes babies. Just Google your neighborhood and see what comes up.

Be creative, be persistent. If you can’t do any of the above, make the time with your baby count! One of my favorite ways of getting a workout in was to put together a playlist on YouTube of my favorite songs and music videos and dance in the computer room with my daughter. It instilled a love of music and dancing in her, and it sure worked up a sweat for me.

Then: People used to believe that physical exercise can be harmful to the unborn baby. After all, pregnancy was referred to as that “delicate condition” and doing anything strenuous could be lead to spontaneous abortion or pre-term birth.

Now: Exercise is encouraged for women during pregnancy and after delivery. It is beneficial to the health of both mother and baby.

Recently, researchers at the Michigan State University helped the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to draft the first-ever guidelines on physical activity for Americans.

And it even includes detailed recommendations for pregnant women. The guidelines call for moderate-intensity aerobic exercise for 150 minutes scattered throughout a week. However, the following activities should be avoided:

• Exercise that involve lying on the back after the 1^st trimester.
• Activities that present high risk of falling or injury or impact to the abdominal area.
• In particular, contact or collision sports such as horseback riding, soccer, basketball, and downhill skiing are strongly discouraged.

According to research studies, some benefits of pregnancy exercise are as follows:

• Exercise can reduce pregnancy complications.
• Exercise may shorten labor time.
• Postpartum exercise increases the cardiorespiratory fitness and reduces low moods.
• Postpartum exercise, combined with a proper diet can help with weight loss and maintaining a health weight.

However, an exercise routine during and after pregnancy should be discussed with a qualified healthcare provider.

A complete copy of the guidelines is available at the DHHS website. The guidelines for pregnant women are in Chapter 6: Safe and Active and Chapter 7: Additional Considerations for Some Adults. Also of interest to BOL readers would be Chapter 3: Active Children and Adolescents. You will also find a great deal of information on prenatal exercise right here at Babies Online.

According to research released at the 55th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), preschoolers in family or home based child care situations are not meeting physical activity recommendations. With millions of children in some kind of child care situation, and an increasing rate of obesity in young children, studies such as this one should shed light on a growing problem in North America.

However, when a study looks at 27 children (12 boys and 15 girls) spread across seven homes over the course of 86 days, its results cannot be taken blindly. Millions of children are in child care, and they look at only 27? And realistically, the child count is not as important as the child care location count (seven), since arguably the kids from one location would all be doing relatively similar activities. So the ACSM took a look at seven homes over the course of 86 days and made a conclusion. I am not disputing the conclusion, just the means used to come to it.

According to the CDC, children need at least 60 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per day. Examples of moderate intensity physical activity include brisk walking, playing tag, and swimming.

I am sure that physical activity recommendations are not being met, not only for young children in child care situations, but for kids of all ages. When we, the current generation of parents, were kids, there was no home internet, no all-day preschooler cable network, no video game consoles, no DVDs of television programs and movies and “educational content”. We played outside not because it was the healthy thing to do, but because it was the only thing to do. Now, we, as parents, need to realize that there are more distractions for our kids, more alternatives to physical activity, and take a more involved position in their free time.

And hey, I will be the first to admit that I do a really poor job at keeping my kid active on a daily basis. I come home from work and I’m wiped. I know it can be difficult. If it weren’t for my wife, my daughter would probably watch a lot more television than she does now. She does get out during the day, and we try to get her outside after dinner now that it’s summer and no longer dark at 4pm. The bottom line is we’re not just making sure they meet recommended targets for her health; we’re also developing habits that (hopefully) will stay with her for the rest of her life.

What do you do to keep your young kids active? Do you try to meet the recommendations of the CDC and ACSM? How successful are you? Do you have any tips or tricks to offer other parents when it comes to getting their kids active?

You can read more SciFi Dad at Tales From The Dad Side

According to an article on American Trails, visits to the United States National Parks have been steadily decreasing over the years. And everywhere we turn, experts are warning us about the negative effects of our increasingly sedentary lifestyle, the number one being that our children are becoming the same. Coupled with the unhealthy eating habits children are mimicking their parents, this has resulted in a never before seen number of overweight, even obese children.

In today’s digital age of iPods, HDTVs, PSPs and XBoxes, it seems kids today have less and less reason to play actively. But as parents, consider what your kids could be missing out on: a love of nature, an outlet to burn energy, and a boost to their health. Studies across different countries have shown that kids who were more active had “healthier numbers for blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin” (Source: Live Science).

As a mom of a 7 mo. old, and a mom who has, let’s just say “big bones”, I worry about what this nation of fast-food and sedentary play will do to my baby. My husband and I already vowed to never bring her to the ubiquitous McDonald’s and their counterparts, unless she in the future begs to go and only for special occasions. I also want to introduce her to the outdoors, and the number one promise: limit her TV to 1 hour a day once she’s a bit older.

She shouldn’t have any TV yet at her age anyway. The American Academy of Pediatrics discourage TV for children under the age of 2. The AAP cites that this age is critical for personal interaction, especially parent to children interaction. They urge parents not to use TV as a babysitter. And I tend to agree.

It’s never too early to instill the habit of active play, and this means that as parents, you must be the example, and the one to actively entice your children to physical activity. As much as possible, try not to just let them veg out in front of the TV.

What can you do to make sure your child isn’t always parked in front of a TV or computer?

• Enroll them in an activity that involves lots of action like karate, gymnastics. I’m not a big fan of Gymboree but they at least offer an outlet for babies to crawl and meet other babies (and for parents to meet other parents too).
• Set aside time several times a week to bike with your children, visit the park, or walk around the neighborhood pushing the younger kids in a stroller while the older ones try their scooter . Kids love spending time with their parents, and this activity ensures that you build memories with your kids while being active at the same time.
• Encourage your kids to play outside with friends. Of course monitor who they hang out with, and give them clear boundaries on where they can and can’t play. I know parents in my neighborhood who park themselves on the driveway or porch in lounge chairs, chatting with each other while the kids play on the street. For parents with younger kids, set up playdates.
• Build a kid-friendly backyard. If you have a house make your backyard a friendly place for your kids to want to hang out: a swing-set, a trampoline (but monitor them), sandbox, a tree-house or a fort. Make it the kind of place their friends would want to come over and play in as well.
• If you live in an apartment, make good use of the kiddie pool that is in most apartment complexes.
• Limit TV, Computer, Video games to a set time and your kids will be forced to become creative with their play!

Applying even a few of these suggestions will help ensure that your kids not be one of the statistics of unhealthy children in our country. Hope they help!

What about you? What do you do in your home to encourage active play?

Physical activity keeps you young while sedentary lifestyle shortens your life. This is the result of a UK-based study on aging. Basically, they compared the lengths of telomeres in active and sedentary individuals. Telomeres are found at the ends of a person’s chromosomes and they help protect the DNA from wearing down. They become shorter as we age so that older people have shorter telomeres than younger people.

Researchers at Twin Research Unit at St Thomas? Hospital in London found that individuals who are inactive, obese, and who smoke tend to have shorter telomeres than active, non-smoking individuals. The difference in biological age between couch potatoes and physically active people can be as high as 10 years.

This, once again, is another proof that exercise is good for our health.

Source:

Live slow die young. Nature News 28 Jan 2008.