Hey, parents, if you're worried that your kids have gotten too sedentary this winter, here's a word of advice from the pros: Play with them. Shoot hoops, dance around the living room, toss a ball, build a snowman.
Many exercise experts believe children today are too sedentary, which contributes to excess weight in one-third of children in the USA. The government's physical activity guidelines recommend that children and teens do an hour or more of moderate-intensity to vigorous activity a day.
One way to get them to move more is to go out and do things with them so they're having fun, says Robert Malina, professor emeritus at the University of Texas-Austin. Try to work in 20 minutes of activity before or after dinner, he says.
Parents should listen to what their kids want to do and then do it with them, he says. "The children will learn from their parents, and the parents will learn from their children. More important, they will be together."
Brian Saelens, a children's obesity researcher at Seattle Children's Research Institute, says children mimic their parents' sedentary behavior just like they mimic their physical activity. So if parents are heavy TV watchers, their kids tend to be the same. Saelens, who has three children under age 5, says that when he gets home, he doesn't watch TV with his children but dances, runs, wrestles and plays with them.
Parents have to give their kids the tools to be active by making sure they have things like balls, Frisbees, jump-ropes and hula hoops, says James Sallis, director of the Active Living Research Program at San Diego State University. For those who can afford it, dance video and active video games are options: "Luckily, there has been an improvement in active video games."
Play and activity used to happen naturally for kids, but over time unstructured play for children has gone down and structured play has gone up, he says. This is partly the result of parental concerns about safety and partly because of cutbacks in recess, gym classes and after-school programs, he says. "So now we've got to work activity back into their lives."
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