How To Know Your Children Are Getting Enough Daily Nutrients

If your family is as busy as mine, your time is filled with sports practices, after school enrichment, swimming lessons, music lessons…. the list is endless – not to mention working a full time job and tackling homework. With a schedule this packed its hard not to be tempted by the convenience of drive thru. So while you may be putting in the effort to make sure your children are eating healthy, how do you know they are getting enough nutrients to support their growing bodies? Build Healthy Kids has an easy 5 minute online assessment you can take to help determine if your kids are getting the required amount of daily essentials http://www.buildhealthykids.com/assessment.html.

Based on the quick assessment of my younger son (age 6), his fruit and vegetable servings per day were good, but I definitely have room for improvement. Such as adding half a banana with his honey oats and ½ cup of whole milk for his morning breakfast. When packing the boys lunches (my other son is 9), I always make sure there is at minimum an apple sauce squeezer but now I’ll also add grapes, apple slices, or other fruit of their liking to the after school snack. 

Another challenge with my younger son is he doesn’t like chicken very much. He’ll eat chicken nuggets or homemade chicken strips (click here for my kid friendly recipe http://kangarookidsfitness.blogspot.com/p/kid-friendly-healthy-recipes.html) but any other preparation and he balks. Therefore, I’ve increased black beans and rice mixed with fresh cut corn (or canned when I’m in a hurry).

I encourage you to take the assessment as well. While we can’t obsess over making sure our children are receiving exactly 2 cups of milk per day or that they ate a rainbow throughout the day, its always a good idea to make sure you are in the ballpark of what keeps our kids healthy.  Please let us know if your kids are getting enough daily nutrients in the comments below. Create more healthy kids!

Play An Active Role In Your Child’s School Fitness and Nutrition Programs

Are you concerned that your child’s school isn’t doing enough to keep the children active or offering healthy food choices? Well, now you can get involved and help initiate some changes. Everything has a catalyst or tipping point – who better than you to get things started? The Let’s Move coalition sponsored by Michelle Obama provides pointers and guides on how to contact your child’s school and organize a school health team.

Just Because It’s Winter Doesn’t Mean The Activities Have To Stop!

Don’t let the rainy cold weather be an excuse to let your preschooler veg in front of the TV this winter. There are some great indoor activities ideas including this one: Create Your Own Indoor Obstacle Course.  They offer lots of fun for several children at a time to work out some of that active energy!

If you really want to keep the kids busy for hours, have them set up a fake laser security system. Take bright colored string and tie it between objects in diagonal, vertical, and horizontal directions. The kids then try to move from one room to the next without touching the strings. Whoever gets to the end without being ‘zapped’ wins (for an extra challenge, use different colored strings and travel between the same colored strings, i.e., only step between the red strings and not the green strings).

Another fun outdoor activity that has been converted to play safely indoors is Red Light, Green Light. Have your child stand at least 20 feet away from you and yell out green light for them to go and red light for them to stop. Instead of having your child run in the house, they can skip, hop, or crawl towards you. 

But I think my favorite of all is Copy Dancing. Your child creates the dance moves – and you copy them! Kids love to be the leaders and this is a good way to get both of you moving while having lots of fun. At the end, crank up the music and have a free dance moment. Get an older child to videotape and share with friends and family!

Keeping Your Pre-schooler Active

Much has been written over the past several years about childhood obesity and how this epidemic seems to be affecting children at younger and younger ages. Whether or not you are personally concerned if your child is heading in the wrong direction, making the right nutrition and fitness decisions while your child is young will have an impact on their health as an adult.  The children’s health and fitness website www.healthychildren.org recently posted an article on the importance of keeping your preschooler active. It mentions reducing the number of hours your child sits in the front of the TV everyday and to encourage a more active and less static lifestyle. While this isn't ground breaking news - it is important to understand the impact of letting your kids at an early age habitually sit in front of the TV playing video games all day is not healthy.

There are great ideas for helping your pre-schooler get enough active time, even for busy families. One fun idea is ‘I Can Spell My Name Hopscotch’ or everyone’s favorite – tag! Freeze tag is a good variation of this game because it helps develop children’s motor and listening skills. As winter approaches and day light savings time has reduced the amount of ‘outside’ time kids have before dinner, some safe indoor activities include hula hoop and ‘Balloon Badminton’. These ideas are sure to get you and your child working up a sweat in no time!

September Is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month!

How tempting it is to have Cheeseburger Day in the same month as National Childhood Obesity Month? While it is ok to allow your children special occasion treats periodically (my 5 year old is on a 2 sweet per day limit when he asks for too much junk in one day), making sure your child also balances their diet with healthy fruits and vegetables is very important.  Too often I think we as parents look back on our childhood, and our waistline, saying your kids won't be able to eat what they want when they want when they grow older and their metabolism slows down so let's just allow them to eat all the junk food they want now before it's too late. The difference between most of our upbringings compared to our children's is we had lots of play time outside. So many parents discuss how they were able to play outside until the street lights came on. Nowadays - parents can't let their kids sit on front steps without full supervision.

This is why it is so important to make sure your kids are getting enough physical activity everyday! When they come home, plan a few minutes between dinner and homework to sneak in a few turns of the jump rope or play a little catch or see who can keep the hola hoop going the longest. These are even fun activities you can participate with the kids while being in doors. While you may not squeeze the full 30 minutes of recommended active time at this particular moment, it will create a new habit of being active in your home instead of just plopping in front of the television or playing video games. If you participate with your child, imagine the added benefits your own body will receive!

Visit the National Institute of Health's We Can!  website for more information on how to help keep your kids healthy and active.