Childhood Development

How to Get Your Kids Up and Moving

January 19, 2015 oblanderchiropractic

About one third of children in the United States are overweight. This is a worrying statistic, but not necessarily a surprising one. Busy school and family schedules leave kids little time for physical activity, while computers and television are often a much more appealing way to spend time than running around outside.

However, if you watch kids on a playground, you’ll notice something interesting: when it comes to running, jumping, and playing, kids are a natural. Most kids want to get moving: all they need is the right environment and a little encouragement. Here’s how you can help.

Encouraging Kids to Be More Active

Kids need at least an hour of physical activity every day to stay healthy. You can help them achieve this amount of activity by providing opportunities to play and monitoring the amount of time they spend on sedentary activities. Use your knowledge of your child’s likes and dislikes to choose activities to direct them towards. Some kids will thrive on a soccer team or in a martial arts class, while others are miserable in these more structured environments. Never force a child to participate in a physical activity he or she don’t enjoy. Instead, work with them to find appealing ways to play.

Similarly, encouraging kids to stay active is much more effective when things are kept simple. If your kids are not naturally drawn to competition, keep the focus off winning and instead encourage them to just have a good time. Try to focus on age-appropriate activities and stifle the urge to push your kids towards better performance. Running, playing, and having a great time is enough.

Your children look to you to learn what kinds of habits constitute a healthy lifestyle. If you tend towards more sedentary pursuits yourself, your kids will likely mimic you. The opposite is also true: if you show them that you find physical activities fun, they’ll want to give them a try too. Make exercise a family activity. Go on walks or bike rides together, spend an afternoon hiking on some easy mountain trails, or take a trip to a skating rink. Engaging in physical activity together will help bring you closer and start building habits that your child can come back to throughout their lifetime.

Finally, do your best to limit the amount of screen time your children indulge in. A sedentary lifestyle is one of the leading causes of obesity, so monitor and control how much time kids spend on the couch. An hour a day is a good rule of thumb, but again, use your knowledge of your child to determine which amount of time is most appropriate.

Encouraging kids to be more active is an important part of keeping them healthy. For more guidance on how to maintain your children’s health, consider consulting with a chiropractor. Chiropractic care focuses on the whole body, making your chiropractor a great resource for more information on keeping your kids (and yourself) active.

With some time and a little encouragement, even the most TV-loving kids can learn how to get up and have a great time. Get out there with them and get in on the active fun.

Young Children Pay a High Price for Screen Time

July 17, 2014 oblanderchiropractic

Many parents are occasionally thankful for the television—after all, it can serve as a low-cost, short-term babysitter while they cook or do housework. At the same time, however, many parents are concerned about the amount of television that their children watch—and for good reason. Statistics tell us that in America, children under six watch an average of two hours of TV a day, and children eight to 18 spend an average of four hours in front of a TV and often an additional two hours a day on computers or playing video games.

So what does all of this screen time mean for America’s children? Recent research published in JAMA Pediatrics suggests that it is results in poorer well-being and sleep and that it contributes to childhood obesity.

In the first study, part of a larger research project called IDEFICS (Identification and Prevention of Dietary- and Lifestyle-Induced Health Effects in Children and Infants), researchers examined 3,604 children aged two to six to determine if there was a relationship between their electronic media use and their sense of well-being. They assessed the children based on six standardized indicators of well-being (including emotional problems, peer problems, self-esteem, family functioning, and social interactions) and compared the results to the number of hours they spent in front of a TV, computer, or video game screen. They found that increased media use predicted much poorer senses of well-being. TV was found to be more harmful than computer use, but overall they found that there was a 1.2- to 2.0-fold increase in emotional problems and poorer family functioning for each additional hour of media use.

A second JAMA Pediatrics study involving 1,713 Spanish children found that children who watched more than 1.5 hours of television per day had shorter sleep duration and began to suffer from sleep deprivation. Their sleep duration shortened with every extra hour of television watched over the 1.5-hour baseline. And in a third study, researchers found that increased media exposure resulted in sharply increasing BMI (Body Mass Index) scores, and thus a tendency toward childhood obesity.

So how much TV is too much? Every day more research comes out indicating that exposure to electronic media can have adverse effects on children—effects that can persist into adulthood.

As a result, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children under the age of two not watch any TV, as the first two years of life are a critical time for brain development. Television and other electronic media can prevent exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, all of which are critical for social development. In addition, the AAP suggests that children older than two watch no more than one to two hours of electronic media per day.

Children and Caffeine: What Parents Should Know

May 29, 2014 oblanderchiropractic

The next time you pass a Starbucks, pause for a moment and imagine that the customers inside drinking their lattes and Grande Espressos are your children. Then imagine them ingesting a drug (caffeine) that is known as a powerful stimulant with a proven history of producing nervousness, restlessness, irritability, high blood pressure, insomnia, headaches and heart palpitations. Finally, consider that this exercise in imagination may not be all that far off the mark.

That is the key finding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a 2014 study published in the journal Pediatrics. The researchers found that nearly three out of four children and young adults in America (73%) consume some caffeine a day, mostly from soda, tea, and coffee, but also from an alarming number of “energy drinks.”

This study comes as part of an investigation undertaken by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) into the safety of foods and drinks that contain caffeine—especially their effects on children and teens. In response to numerous reports of hospitalizations and even deaths after the consumption of highly caffeinated drinks or “energy shots,” the investigators analyzed health surveys containing data on over 22,000 subjects aged 2 to 22.

Many foods contain caffeine (including chocolate, candy bars, some jelly beans, and marshmallows), but most of the caffeine ingested by small children comes in the form of soda. The rise in the use of energy drinks—although they account for only 6% to 10% of children’s daily caffeine intake—is seen as particularly alarming, because many of these drinks contain even higher amounts of caffeine than soda.

The FDA study found that the average caffeine intake among participants was about 60-70 milligrams—roughly the same amount of caffeine present in a six-ounce cup of coffee or two sodas. However, this finding does not necessarily mean that this level of caffeine consumption is safe for children. In fact, while the FDA has classified caffeine as GRAS (generally recognized as safe), that classification is based solely on its use by adults. There is actually no current body of research analyzing its possible detrimental effects on children. Nakia V. Williams, M.D., a pediatrician at the Henry Ford Health System, says, “There haven’t been a lot of studies of caffeine in young children, but we do know that children suffer from similar side effects as adults, and that on average these side effects can occur at lower doses given the smaller body sizes.” The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends against caffeine consumption for children and teens because of possible harmful stimulant effects as well as the possibility of it worsening anxiety in children already suffering from anxiety disorders. The AAP holds the clear position that “stimulant-containing energy drinks have no place in the diets of children and adolescents.”

So if you have kids, think twice before allowing them to consume soda and other drinks that contain caffeine. Pediatricians are unanimous in suggesting that they would be better off drinking water, reasonable amounts of fruit juices, milk, and other non-caffeinated beverages.

Tips for Raising More Active Kids

July 3, 2013 oblanderchiropractic

With rates of childhood obesity at epidemic levels, there has been a greater push to get children to eat healthier and be more active. Diet is an important part of raising healthy children, but so is exercise. Unfortunately, many areas of the country have had their educational budgets cut to the point where physical education programs are being sharply reduced or even eliminated. Many schools are also shortening recess periods in an effort to increase instruction time. Combine these developments with the fact that many kids get little or no physical activity at home, and it’s easy to see why exercise has become a focus in the effort to curb childhood obesity rates.

Frances Berg, an expert in childhood obesity, says “Because young children naturally move around a lot, many people assume they are getting all the physical activity they need. But today TV and videos often keep them still for longer periods than parents realize.” And any parent knows how difficult it can be to tear kids away from the TV or computer. The trick is to make the alternatives interesting for them. Berg says, “Physical activity should be a fun part of daily life and never forced. If children begin to associate being active with having fun, they’re more likely to stay active as they grow up.” Following are a few tips for raising more active kids

* Limit electronics- Time sitting in front of the TV or computer should be limited. Children should spend no more than an hour or two of each day with these devices. One way of keeping them active while playing a video game is to invest in a Wii, which at least gets them up and moving.

* Start a garden – Gardening is very active work, and kids love to watch the seeds they planted grow.

* Walk or bike to school – It’s a great way of getting exercise at least twice a day, and you don’t have to worry about getting stuck in traffic! It’s also a good time to hear about your child’s concerns or talk about how their day went.

* Wash the car together – Kids love playing around with water and suds, and in the end you’ll have a clean car too.

* Take a hike – Pack a healthy picnic lunch and go for a hike with your kids. You can make it more interesting for them by having them be on the lookout for certain birds or animals as you hike.

* Dance around the house – Put some music on while preparing dinner and dance around the kitchen with your kids.

* Throw a ball or Frisbee – Not only will it provide fun exercise, it will build eye-hand coordination as well.

* Set a good example – Take the stairs instead of the elevator, park far from the entrance to a store, etc. This will get your kids in the habit of being more active.
Encouraging your children to be more active will help to burn off the excess energy they have, making them happier and more able to focus during quiet times. It will also help them build healthier lifestyle habits for the future!

Inside the Teenage Brain

May 20, 2013 oblanderchiropractic

If you have ever wondered why the teenage years are so difficult for parents (and often the teens themselves) you need look no further than their brain. The brain undergoes rapid and profound development during the teen years, much more so than during most of childhood. It is a time when the areas of the brain involved in the calculation of risk, rewards and decision making go through increasingly major changes. This may explain why late adolescence (between ages 15 and 19) has a six times greater mortality rate than those in late childhood and early adolescence (between ages 10 and 14).

Research conducted by scientists using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from early childhood through adulthood has mapped the many changes that the developing brain makes as it matures. They have found that the brain continues to develop into a person’s early 20s, with the frontal lobes that are responsible for reasoning and problem-solving being developed last.

Although the teenage brain is more impulsive and willing to take risks, it is also dynamic, vulnerable and stimulated by positive feedback. The reason for this is that the reward centers in teenage brains are highly responsive, while at the same time, the region of the brain associated with self-control is still not developed fully.

Dr. Jay Giedd, Chief of Brain Imaging at the Child Psychiatry Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, says “The most surprising thing has been how much the teen brain is changing. By age six, the brain is already 95 percent of its adult size. But the gray matter, or thinking part of the brain, continues to thicken throughout childhood as the brain cells get extra connections, much like a tree growing extra branches, twigs and roots.”
Although the brain grows in gray matter significantly during childhood and early adolescence, the amount of gray matter actually begins to fall in mid-adolescence, which researchers say is a normal process of brain maturation.

Giedd says, “… the pruning-down phase is perhaps even more interesting, because our leading hypothesis for that is the “use it or lose it” principle. Those cells and connections that are used will survive and flourish. Those cells and connections that are not used will wither and die. So if a teen is doing music or sports or academics, those are the cells and connections that will be hard-wired. If they’re lying on the couch or playing video games or MTV, those are the cells and connections that are going [to] survive.”

Studies have shown that experiences early in life have a profound effect on the development of the teenage brain. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that children who received a lot of cognitive stimulation and parental nurturing had a brain with a thicker outer cortex, which is important in thinking and memory. Another long-term study from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in London discovered that there were major structural changes in the areas of the teenage brain that relate to empathy.

Adults should perhaps give teenagers more of a break. As Giedd says, “It’s sort of unfair to expect teens to have adult levels of organizational skills or decision-making before their brains are finished being built.”

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