Missouri Health

Warm weather and longer daylight hours provide the perfect opportunity for your child to get more physical activity.

“Children need at least one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day,” says Sarah Hampl, M.D., medical director of Weight Management Services at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo., and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine. “This can be done all at once or in four, 15-minute bouts of physical activity. Moderate to vigorous activity means the type of activity that gets a person breathing a little quicker, one’s heart beating faster and sweating a bit. Increased physical activity decreases a child’s risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as related risk factors such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity.”

Imagination at Play

While it may be difficult for your child to get excited about “exercise,” most kids like fun activities. Hampl suggests these ideas for making physical activity more appealing.

• Create an exercise bin. Take a plastic bucket or box and fill it with items that can be used for outdoor games, such as a foam ball, a jump rope, a hula hoop, sidewalk chalk, tennis rackets or plastic plates for bases — any toy or sporting equipment your child may enjoy. Think of nontraditional ways to use these items. For example, hang a hula-hoop in a tree and throw a ball through it.
• Do yard work together. Plant a garden with your children and teach them the importance of eating fruits and vegetables. Give your child a kid-size rake and let him help you till the garden and pull weeds.
• Participate in your own Olympics. Meet family and friends at the park for a day of games. Compete in activities such as Frisbee^® throwing and relay races.
• Fun with Fido. Have your child help give the family pet a bath or take the pet for a walk around the neighborhood.
• Dance in the rain. Think you can’t get exercise outdoors on a rainy day? Take your children outside during a gentle summer shower and let them dance around in their swimsuits and jump in rain water puddles.

“The best way to encourage your child to live an active lifestyle is to be a healthy role model,” Hampl says. “Join your children during outdoor fun and talk to them about the importance of living an active life.”