Obesity in Children

Healthy food and sedentary lifestyles lead to obesity in children. The junk food coupled with lot of screen time is a major cause of obesity leading to chronic diseases in later life. Chubby children look cute when they are in their early stages but not when they grow older. Most pediatricians recommend two hours or less of screen time and one hour or more of physical activity for children.

Healthy Food

As per the saying all that tastes good may not be good, children must not be continuously fed junk food or high calorie food just because they like it. Bribing food or sweets may not be a good trend. Doctors recommend daily five servings of fruits and vegetables. One serving is equal to the amount that fits in their fists. Children must be encouraged to try out all the different types of fruits and vegetables. Your child may have to take vitamin supplements if totally depending on vegetarian food.

Milk

Milk is the first food for any baby. Milk has all the essential proteins, minerals and vitamins for children. Some parents feed solid foods for their children and may sacrifice milk. But, doctors recommend daily 24 ounces of milk daily for children. Milk is easily digested in children in most cases.

Screen Time

Electronics serve as a great assistant and baby sitter to engage children. Mostly living indoors, children resort to electronic media such as the good old television, video games, computer games, mobile phones, and others for entertainment. But, it is suggested that children get no more than two hours of screen time per day. It is not good for their physical health as well as destroys brain and vision.

Physical Exercise

The physical exercise which children get in schools is not enough. Doctors do recommend one hour of physical exercise for children. In fact, they are capable of more than that. The physical exercise may be any sport or swimming or just casual play in the backyard.

Water

Finally, children must take zero sweetened beverages as it is not good for their health. Water is a major part of the earth and the body and hence must be a major part of the daily intake. Eight glasses of water are recommended daily. And don’t forget fifteen minutes of sunshine and ten to twelve hours of sleep for your child.

First Lady Michelle Obama recently announced “Let’s move” campaign to increase the child obesity awareness. It is important to consult your family pediatrician regarding a child’s diet and have annual health check ups.

AHA endorses Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort – Go video games for healthy hearts

Coming summer the American Heart Association (AHA) is going to embed its logo on Wii. The American Heart Association endorsed the Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort packages. Let’s look at the reason behind this endorsement while exploring the features and benefits of Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort.


Physical Activity

The amount of physical activity your family is involved depends up on the life style. Apart from daily chores at home and at work, every individual requires certain physical activity to stay fit and healthy. Even children in modern times are adopting sedentary life style.

Engaging in outdoor sports depends on the infrastructure facilities available in your community. Further, weather plays a crucial role to play outdoor games. Areas with continental climate conditions limit the chance of outdoor sports or any other outdoor physical activity.

Other alternative gym, proves to be costly and sometimes upsetting the normal body condition of a person. The lack of physical activity, sedentary lifestyle and improper diet increases the chances of heart attack even at a much younger age!

Video games

Video games are condemned originally for their tendency to promote laziness in children and young adults. At an average, modern kid spends around ten hours of their free time with electronic gadgets. These include TV, laptop, ipad, iphone, Nintendo, Video games, listening to music and so on.  Thus limiting their ability to communicate face-to-face and personally.


Wii

When Wii was introduced in 2006, its competitors were Microsoft’s XBox and Sony’s Play Station 3. Nintendo’s Wii revolutionized video games by increasing the physical activity through the games. The video game has a console along with a Nunchuck and Remote. Within your living room, you can play tennis, base ball, boxing, bowling and golf. Wii Sports comprises these five games.

The next version of Wii Sports is Wii Fit, which has a Balance Board along with the console, Nunchuck and  Remote. It comprises forty games in four categories. The main areas are yoga, balance games, aerobics and strength training. The software in the game allows an individual to record the Body Mass Index (BMI) based on the person’s details.

Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports

Wii Fit Plus is an advance version of Wii Fit. It has additional games along with calorie tracker, personlized training routine, creating profiles for children and pets. In addition, certain games have been added in Training Plus. You cn check your body status and balance every day, weekly or after a pre-determined time.

Wii Sports Resort has more games such as Swordplay, Wakeboarding, Frisbee, Archery, Basketball, Table Tennis, Golf, Bowling, Power Cruising, Canoeing, Cycling and Air Sports.

Active-Play and Fun

Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort have games which encourage active-play instead of sitting at one place and playing with buttons. You have to physically move and involve to play these games and get better. That is the reason The AHA has endorsed these products. You can play alone or play in groups with friends and family taking turns. Its always a competition in sports as to who is performing better in any given sport.

My personal favorites are yoga, aerobics and free run. I am the best in my family in hula hooping. While my son is good at Snow ball fight that improves planning ahead, my husband’s best is Lotus Focus, a game that improves your concentration! Its time for my Wii Fit Plus and personal  training session to reach my weight loss target. 🙂