Active Kids: Finding the Right Balance

In my time working with parents, a lot of parents have asked if their child is getting enough exercise. 

It’s a real and honest question in today’s busy life. Everyone knows exercise is great for weight management, strong bones and muscles, good posture, and heart health. Everyone also knows that exercise is good for our bodies and minds. However, it can be hard to carve out time for exercise, especially when our kids are so busy with school, clubs, and activities. It can be even more difficult to determine how much exercise a child needs to stay healthy when they have so many different activities running simultaneously. The good news is, there are resources available to help parents know how much exercise is needed as well as what type. Together, this helps families create an environment where children are entertained and having fun while getting their appropriate amount of exercise. 

Transcript

Hello and welcome to another episode of Proactive Parenting. Remember, this is a judgement-free space to learn how to raise value-driven kids in a way that is right for your family, using the most current scientific research out there. 

I’m your host, Dr. Deanna Marie Mason. I’m a certified pediatric nurse practitioner, published author, and a professional who has devoted my career to studying and using child development to help parents manage childhood issues. 

So, grab a cup of coffee or tea and settle in to learn something new about your child because when we know better, we do better. 

In my time working with parents, a lot of parents have asked if their child is getting enough exercise. 

It’s a real and honest question in today’s busy life. Everyone knows exercise is great for weight management, strong bones and muscles, good posture, and heart health. Everyone also knows that exercise is good for our bodies and minds. However, it can be hard to carve out time for exercise, especially when our kids are so busy with school, clubs, and activities. It can be even more difficult to determine how much exercise a child needs to stay healthy when they have so many different activities running simultaneously. The good news is, there are resources available to help parents know how much exercise is needed as well as what type. Together, this helps families create an environment where children are entertained and having fun while getting their appropriate amount of exercise. 

The first place we need to start is by evaluating how much time our children are physically active. We can do this by adding up the minutes and hours our child is engaged in physical activity. So we can jot down how many minutes are kiddos are active around the house doing things like riding bikes, playing tag, swimming, walking the dog, taking out the garbage, vacuuming the floors, mowing the lawn, or raking leaves. All of these types of chores and play count as exercise. So you may have noticed that giving your child household chores actually is a 2-for-1 by teaching shared responsibility and giving them some needed physical activity. 

Many of our kiddos are also involved in after-school activities, such as sports and athletic programs, which also adds to their physical activity. So, in addition to what our child is doing around the house, we can also review our child’s school schedule to see how many minutes of physical education they receive each day also counts and how long they participate in after-school athletic programs. For our younger children, we can also count recess minutes where our little ones have time to use playground equipment and play ball games with their classmates. 

By adding up the minutes of usual activity at home with the scheduled activities at school, we can get a good estimate of how physically active our child is. Based on what we find, we will know if we need to help our kiddos become more active.

However, you might still be wondering how to know if your child is getting enough movement in their day. So to help, I went to the sources I feel have the clearest and most easily understood recommendations, the Center for Disease Control, whose recommendations can be found at cdc.gov, and the Canadian Center of Excellence for Early Childhood Development, whose recommendations can be found at excellence-earlychildhood.ca 

Let’s start by going over what is the difference between aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening activities because these are the three areas that we need to be paying attention to. Most children, naturally through play, will be doing all these types of activities on their own as they explore the world around them. But in case your child is a bit more sedentary, it’s good to know the difference between each. 

Aerobic activity are things that increase the heart rate. Examples could be brisk walking, running, or skating. Muscle- strengthening activities are things that focus on strengthening and growing muscle mass. Examples of these activities include gymnastics or push-ups. And bone-strengthening activities create stronger bones through impact. Some examples of exercises that increase bone strength include running or jumping rope. As you can see, some exercises do more than one thing. For example, running is both an aerobic exercise and a bone-strengthening one. 

So now that we covered the different types of exercise, let’s go over each age group so you know how much exercise your child needs. 

Young children, ages 3 to 5 years need a minimum total amount of 60 minutes per day, but preferably much more. Of that time, 60 minutes or more should be aerobic activity, most days of the week. Part of that 60 minutes should be devoted to muscle and bone strengthening activities most days of the week. This means that we want our littlest ones play vigorously for at least 60 minutes most days of the week while climbing, jumping, crawling, skipping, and generally gaining mastery of their bodies as they explore the world around them. 

Older children, ages 6-17 years, also need 60 minutes or more per day of exercise. Most of those 60 minutes daily, but at least 3 x week, their activities should be aerobic focused. They should also devote part of the 60 minutes daily, at least 3 x week to muscle and bone strengthening. If older children are enrolled in athletic activities, such as sport or dance, they will most likely reach these totals through their group or individual practice. They important piece with older children is that they continue to include the appropriate amount of aerobic activity to assure heart health as they continue their physical development and to be careful with weights and repetitions of certain muscle and bone strengthening activities because of the delicacy of the growth plates at the end of their long bones and increased flexibility in their joints as their body goes through growth spurts. 

For our young adult children, ages 18 and up, need 75 - 150 minutes per week (depending on intensity), plus strength training. 75 minutes is recommended if they engage in vigorous-intensity activities or 150 minutes if they prefer or choose moderate- intensity activities. Muscle strengthening activities should be included 2 or more times per week and strive to include all major muscle groups. 

If you find your child isn’t meeting these minimum requirements, a great way to help your child find time to exercise is to replace sedentary activities with active ones. Replacing screen time, such as watching TV, playing video games, watching TikToks, and texting can be limited to allow more time for exercise. 

And here are some simple ideas to support your child in finding ways to move: 

Infants and toddlers should not be sedentary, restrained or kept inactive for more than an hour at a time. Physical activity is important in these early years to begin healthy habits. Infants age 0 to 12 months should be encouraged to move in safe environments, inside and outside the home, to develop gross motor skills. 

Pre-schooler, ages 2-3 years, should be getting 30 minutes in total per day, but broken up in smaller units of 5-10 minutes, of structured physical activity, such as playing a chase game or participating in a group mimic dance. An additional 60 minutes or more of unstructured physical activity is recommended in the form of free play, games, walking from place to place, and other types of recreation like exploring on a nature walk that would include climbing over a log or crouching down to look at a flower. The key at this ate is to encourage walking instead of using a stroller to increase physical activity. 

School-age and teens from age 3 and up, do well with at least 60 minutes per day of moderate-to-vigorous exercise with strength activities built in. What does “moderate-to-vigorous” exercise mean? It means that the exercise that would be rated on a scale of 0-10 as a 5 or 6. Strength activities are either bone-strengthening or muscle strengthening. Remember that bone- strengthening activities produce an impact or tension force on the bones that promotes bone growth and strength. Running, jumping rope, and lifting weights are examples of bone-strengthening activities. And muscle-strengthening activities, including exercise that increases skeletal muscle strength, power, endurance, and mass. Some examples of muscle-strengthening activities are push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. 

The science is clear that exercise may helps our children better control their weight, build strong muscles and bones, and improve their fine and gross motor skills. The key for helping our kiddos exercise more is to keep the focus on play. During childhood, exercise is really play and is meant to be enjoyable, to release built up energy, and to interact with the world in an exploratory and self-guided manner. Parents don’t need to participate in all of the exercise minutes a child engages in, nor should they with older children and teens. Parents only need to provide a safe environment, support, and guidance when needed. That said, families that exercise together, in the form of hikes, games, etcetera build great habits that kids can take with them as they grow and mature to make healthy life-long behaviors. 

Exercise is always an interesting topic today because there are so many different perspectives on the subject, but I’ll wrap things up here for today. As always, I welcome your comments or questions about this episode. Please don’t hesitate to connect with me at deanna@proactiveparenting.com. And if you want to find out more about who I am and what I do, please take a look at my webpage, proactiveparenting.com. 

You can also go to Facebook and Instagram to connect with other parents just like you. Find me by searching for my name - Deanna Marie Mason. Finally, if you would like to purchase any of my books, online courses, such as Newborn Care or Breastfeeding Bootcamp, or audio courses on eating, sleeping, playing, autonomy and toilet training, you can find all those resources on my webpage, again that is proactiveparenting.com 

Thanks so much for listening, I hope you found this episode useful and interesting. If you did, please leave a comment and tell a friend so they can become a Proactive Parent too! 

Well, that’s all from me for right now. This is Dr. Deanna Marie Mason signing off. I look forward to seeing you again soon. Until then, take care and be well. 

Bye!