nutrition and exercise for young children

Importance of Nutrition and Exercise

 One in four children in Austalia are now classed as obese!

Exercise is vital for children’s development and lays the foundation for an active and healthy life.

Encouraging good eating habits and eating healthy options helps children grow strong and maintain a healthy weight.

Calcium is particularly important for children’s growing bones.  Healthy growth takes place with proper nutrition in childhood and influences growth and health through to adolescence.  Most children have formed lifelong eating habits by school age.  A low fat and cholesterol diet on a daily basis also promotes good health in children and in the long term.

Importance of fundamental skills.

From 4-yrs of age are the best time to develop these gross motor and fine motor skills, as children of this age have the neurological &  ability to develop skills.

Practising running, balancing, jumping in early childhood assists children to be better able to actively enjoy an active lifestyle later in life.  Involvement in exercise and motor skill development programs have shown to develop self- esteem and confidence associated with in other areas of children’s education. 

‘Nonlocomotor’ or body management skills are those that involve bending, stretching, pushing and pulling, twisting and turning, balancing and rolling.  So get your kids involved in forms of exercise that involve these fundamental skills to encourage a long term interest in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and possibly developing specialised skills in their chosen sport in the future.

Top tips for kids’ yoga participation:

Yoga assists in development of fine and gross motor skills and building strong bones and muscles.

A small healthy snack before yoga can help to giver energy and improve their cardiovascular fitness outcomes.

Weight-bearing exercises in which children carry their own body weight, such as upward facing dog, plank, tree pose, warrior poses all have a positive impact on a child’s bone development.

As their bones are still developing, avoid too much high impact asanas and holding poses for two long.  The softness of the growth plates at the end of each growing bone can mean a greater risk of injury.  Short bouts of high impact asanas, such as jumping in ‘frog pose’ can promote bone growth in children. 

Ensure that your yoga session incorporates a variety of activities that use different muscle groups and body parts, for example; Move from frog jumping to dolphin pose to work on the upper body more.

Note: boys are more prone to growth plate injuries than girls, as their growth plates usually fuse at a later stage. 

Use a warm up of 5-10 minutes to assist injury prevention.  For example; bike peddling in the air (peddle laughing game). 

Work on strengthening alternate muscle groups as children get older. For example, do boat pose then a lower back strengthening asana for example, Locust pose in yoga.

Make it fun!  Play is the primary way young children learn and that includes learning about having a healthy active life. 

Kids sleep better after a work-out of any sort, so added bonus for parents!

Further reading: ‘Get up and Grow program’ Australia. 

Reference: ‘Too Much Too Quickly’ by Jeff Walkley (from the ACHPER Healthy Lifestyle Journal, 1995).