How to Keep Your Child Healthy And Fit
These days, the media is overrun with different headlines about how American kids are becoming overweight.
According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), about 16% of children between the ages of 6 and 19 are overweight, and these figures keep increasing every day.
There’s no difference between the effects of being overweight in a child or that of an adult, they all have the same repercussions: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart diseases, and even cancer.
According to experts, children should engage in physical activities for at least an hour every day.
Are your kids physically active?
Parents have a huge role to play when it comes to keeping their kids physically active and making sure they eat healthy.
This is no short-term commitment; it is a continuous process where you keep making modifications to suit the entire family.
Below are some of the suggestions from NIDDK’s team of experts:
Try setting a good example. You can plan family activities such as biking, hiking, or dancing.
Ensure that your kids take part in active chores such as dog walking, lawn mowing or car washing.
Don’t forget to make it fun.
Younger kids are more likely to respond better to such activities if they’re fun.
Make them climb a jungle gym, play chase with them or throw Frisbees.
And you can encourage the older kids to take physical education classes.
Reduce their screen time. It is easy for kids to fall under the spell of televisions and other activities that require screen usage.
These activities can occupy their attention for hours, which is not good as it discourages physical activity while boosting calorie increase.
Encourage your child to partake in outdoor activities; you can also get them to move around each time a commercial comes on.
All these physical activities go a long way in boosting the health of your child.
Maintaining physically fitness should be a lifestyle for yourself and your family.
+Bonus: How to raise resilient kids who never give up
