little kids with big problems

what’s in the news

You can’t go long these days without hearing another study about the obesity epidemic in North America.  Canadian and American adults and children are bigger than ever.  Last year, Statistics Canada announced that 16% of Canadian adults are medically obese and another 32% are overweight.  Bigger parents means bigger children, and now a staggering 26% of Canadian kids are overweight. If you’ve ever been teased (yes, you… shoved in a locker? called names? picked last for kickball?) you know that being perceived as different can be emotional torture for a child.  An overweight kid might as well have giant neon arrows surrounding her.  But what about the physical consequences of childhood overweight and obesity?

Heavy kids are at risk for most of the same complications as heavy adults: depression, sleep problems, asthma, headaches, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, hypothyroidism, chronic infections, fatty liver disease, gallstones, constipation, acid reflux, joint pain, fractures and a generally decreased quality of life.  Not the future you envisioned for your little one?  The good news is that simple lifestyle changes like increasing physical activity and improving family nutrition habits have a big impact on little bodies.  A recent study showed that overweight children can lose several pounds just by exercising 20 minutes per day.  Easier said than done, you say?  Well, the gestappo you are not.  If you want to change your kids’ attitudes toward exercise you must understand what’s stopping them from being active in the first place.  A 2003 study determined the top five perceived barriers to exercise among overweight and obese children.  Below are the top 5 reasons that overweight kids, especially girls, feel they can’t be active and five strategies to break down these barriers and get your kids moving:

Top 5 Perceived Barriers to Exercise… and Solutions for Parents

1. Barrier: too much homework and not enough time for physical activity.  Moms & Dads can: suggest short bursts of exercise as homework breaks and build exercise into the daily schedule by encouraging biking or walking to school and activities, if possible.

2. Barrier: Self conscious about looks and when doing physical activity.  Moms & Dads can: shift language to emphasize strength, health and fitness instead of appearance, and choose activities that encourage performance but don’t focus on how to make bodies look better.

3. Barrier: No one with whom to exercise.  Moms & Dads can: schedule family activities on weekends and evenings, and find age-appropriate group activity programs (perhaps not school-based if your child is being ridiculed or left out or feels self-conscious with classmates).

4. Barrier: Feel too overweight to do physical activity.  Moms & Dads can: show kids that work and play activities such as walking the dog, cleaning, frisbee and dancing are all activities of which they are capable and which can help improve their health and fitness.

5. Barrier: Chosen last for teams.  Moms & Dads can: introduce kids to individual sports or sports that are less focused on skill level such as biking, jogging and cross-country skiing.  Encourage strength training to help build coordination and focus; strength training may also help build self-esteem as overweight children are often quite strong.

Children are meant to be active.  In a gentle way, teach your children that exercise is not an option.  Daily activity is as mandatory as daily teeth brushing and exercise, in its absence, is a powerful threat to your child’s health, now and as an adult.  Understanding your child’s attitudes about her body and about exercise can start a conversation between you that will allow you to strategize and come up with solutions to get the whole family a lot healthier and happier.

children’s fitness tax credit

family fitness

Okay, it’s not the sexiest subject, but tax season is upon us.  The Canada Revenue Agency has offered a tax credit since 2007 to moms and dads who pay to enrol their children in programs of physical activity.   To read more about the Children’s Fitness Tax Credit, visit the CRA website and find out how you can claim up to $500 per child per year.

Yet another reason to build regular blocks of physical activity into your child’s days and weeks….

Fitness is Different for Girls: Alberta Study

what’s in the news

Those days of high school phys. ed. may be long behind us but, for many women, the memories remain and they’re not all pleasant.  Even in our modern day, co-ed sports and fitness activities tend to be dominated by the presence of testosterone and all the gusto and competitiveness that comes along with that celebrated and derided male hormone.  I can still feel the angry stares on the back of my head as I relive in my less-confident moments the feeling of flubbing that volleyball serve or missing yet another basket (I mean, come on… I could barely hold the basketball with two hands, let alone gracefully toss it overhead, one-handed, with the tips of my fingers AND do so with enough precision to send said ball through a hoop barely larger than the projectile itself and angled away from me, a thousand feet over my head… but I digress…).

If we didn’t know it already, here is some support for the general feeling that girls are different when it comes to fitness and physical activity.  They value and need different stimuli and support to be successful in physical pursuits.  The Alberta Centre for Active Living conducted instruction and interviews with girls in grade six to determine the role that social and environmental cues have in girls’ enjoyment of physical activity.  From that paper, here are five key tips to keep in mind when dealing with your own daughters and other little women in your life on matters of physical activity:

• Promote physical activity as something that’s fun to do.

• Don’t focus on physical appearance outcomes, and let girls know that health is not defined by body size. While physical activity is an important part of health, being skinny is not. People of a variety of weights and body shapes can be healthy.

• Avoid assumptions about boys’ and girls’ abilities and about what kinds of activities are right for boys and girls. Promote a wide range of activities for both.

• Free time is important. Kids need time to just be kids and do activities of their choice.

• When possible, make physical activity a part of other activities that girls like to do.

Our daughters will have plenty of years ahead of them to worry about cholesterol, celebrity diets, and living up to expectations in general.  Give your daughter the best start possible and introduce her in a dynamic, fun and open-minded way to the world of sport and fitness.  Incorporate the advice of the Alberta Centre for Active Living and, above all, lead by example. Get out there yourself, pick up an old sport from university, join a powerwalking group in your neighbourhood, take your kids out for an evening bike ride and speak in a positive and healthy way about your fitness and your body shape.  Check out an earlier post for 5 great family activities to help you stay fit together.  Approach fitness from a place of bettering your life and your family’s life and you will build, and instill, strength from within.