Family Health Zone

How Both Children and Parents Can Benefit From Playing Together

In our busy, often hectic lives, it can be so difficult to work in quality play time with our children. The problem is, that to properly grow and learn, children need to engage actively in play. And in order to assure that our children are developing their necessary physical and emotional skills, we need to make some time to share in their activities.

Let's look at some of the benefits of playing together, for our children:

Physical Activity. While you want to let your child take the lead in choose what they do during play  time, you can help encourage them to choose healthy physical activities. If they want to play a game, suggest hide and seek, tag, or anything else that will get them up and moving. Physical play helps to support physical development. If a child sits in front of a T.V. all day, they’ll never develop the best balance, or other physical attributes as well as they should.

Parental Bonding. There is nothing more important in building a child’s self esteem and feeling of safety, than bonding with a parent. If a child learns to develop a trusting attitude with their parents, they’ll grow up to feel safer and more secure in the world around them. To you it might seem obvious, but for them, this time is about feeling loved, secure, and protected.

Self Expression. If allowed to direct their own play, a child will often reenact situations that he or she finds important in their lives. They may also use play time to vent emotional frustrations that may not be capable of verbalizing at this point in their development. By paying attention to your child’s behavior during play, you can determine what their concerns and frustrations are. And, once you know the problem, it’s a lot easier to deal with and maybe find some alternative solutions that your child needs.

While playing with your child is obviously beneficial to them, it can also help you out as well. Here are just a few of the benefits of playing with your son or daughter.

Getting Better Acquainted With Your Children. Many parents of teenagers say that they know little or nothing about their child. A good way to know them later on in life, is to begin the process of learning who they are while they’re still young, and then work to continually understand who they are as they grow older. Playing regularly with your children now, may actually help you worry less about them when they’re older.

Helps You to Relax. When children play, they create imaginary worlds and situations. If you are actively involved in your child’s imaginary worlds, it can help you forget the stress of the real world.

Promotes Your Own Physical Activity. We all know how hard it is to stay active when there are deadlines to meet, bills to pay, and everything else to do. If we strive to keep our children active through play, we will end up being active with them.

Playing with your child is as simple as setting aside a block of time everyday. It may be difficult to rearrange your schedule, but it will be well worth it for both you and your child, in the end.

Benefits of Strength Training for Children

When most people think of strength training, they imagine big buff body builders. Contrary to popular belief, when done properly, strength training can be safe and beneficial to your child.

• Helps with sports performance. Many preteens want to start a strength training program to improve their sports capabilities. When done properly, strength training can help your child become a better athlete. Just remember that it should be used to help with sport performance, not be a sport itself. Pre teens and teens bodies are not ready for extreme muscle building.
• Can prevent injuries. The stronger your child is, the less likely they are to hurt themselves when participating in other physical activities. You may think that they can hurt themselves through strength training, but injuries are usually minor when proper technique is used.
• Improves child’s stamina. This is helpful when it comes to sports, but can be a plus in all aspects of life. Improved stamina can help your child get through long, physically and mentally demanding days with less pain and stress.
• Improves overall physical health. Strength training can strengthen bones, lower cholesterol, improve heart and lung function and help your child maintain a healthy body composition.
• Teaches healthy exercise practices. With the percentage of obese children today, most parents should be concerned about teaching their child healthy exercise practices, and strength training is a way to do it. They’ll learn to be able to stick with a healthy exercise program and not overdo it. For this reason, you should also incorporate regular aerobic activity into your child’s schedule.
• Build’s self esteem. A lot of how your child feels about themselves come from the way they look. If they start looking and feeling better, they’ll feel better about themselves. They will also   build their self esteem by knowing that they can set goals and achieve them in a healthy manner.

While many people promote strength training for children, there are some safety concerns. If you’re going to let your child do strength training, make sure it is done properly.

• Don’t start too young. In order to master strength training, a child must be able to do the movements in proper form. Young children are still learning to control their motor functions and shouldn’t be distracted by building muscle.
• Visit your child’s pediatrician. You doctor can not only tell you if your child is physically capable of starting strength training, they can also help you choose an appropriate exercise program and safety measures.
• Start slow. Make sure your child has mastered the movements before allowing weights or other forms of resistance to be added. Many injuries in strength training are caused by incorrect form. In order to keep your child healthy, be sure they can perform the activity without resistance before letting them use weights.
• Remember to add weights slowly. This is meant to help your child, not get them stronger as fast as possible. A child should be able to do 15 reps of an exercise properly before moving on to more resistance.

If you follow these safety guidelines, you will start to see all the benefits to your child’s life in no time.

How Physical Activity Can Help Battle Adolescent Depression

Are you worried about your adolescent's moods? Has their behavior changed recently and you think they might be depressed? If your child or adolescent appears to be depressed, you may have looked into antidepressants and found yourself even more concerned, and you should be. Drugs designed to fight depression in adults may in some cases, actually increase the incidence of destructive behavior in some children and adolescents.

The good news is that there are other options. While seriously depressed teens should visit the doctor to rule out underlying physical conditions, a therapist that specializes in the treatment of adolescents, or other mental health professionals, some early symptoms may also be alleviated through regular physical activity and exercise. Physical activities can work directly as well as indirectly to help relive many of your teen’s emerging symptoms of depression.

While there are other health benefits, exercise and physical activity itself, can directly improve the overall mood of your adolescent. Activity that is physical, produces chemicals in the brain, that work to improve a person's overall feeling of good health. While the effect is short term, regular exercise can  help to improve your adolescent's affect, even when they’re not actively engaged in physical activity.

It is not a secret that there are many children and adolescents in this country that are overweight and suffering from diabetes. Regular exercise will help alleviate or at least control these conditions and leave your child feeling better about themselves.

Another one of the contributing factors in adolescent depression is low self esteem. By helping your child improve their physical appearance, you can help improve the way they feel about their bodies and themselves. Regular exercise will help your child look and feel better. Even if physical results are minimal, consistent exercise and physical activity can help to provide the child with a sense of accomplishment which boosts their self-esteem.

As already indicated, low self esteem is a big factor in childhood and adolescent depression. But self-esteem is not entirely determined by how one looks or what skills one can accomplish. Many children suffer from a low self-esteem because they lack socialization skills. There are plenty of exercise opportunities for adolescents, such as team sports, that involve socializing. These will allow your child to meet new people and make new friends. Even if they’re not good enough to make their school’s team, there are plenty of other opportunities through the YMCA and other sport clubs. Given the opportunity and provided with your encouragement, they may find an activity that they enjoy participating in.

So talk to your teen, visit the doctor to rule out physical reasons for the depression and don't hesitate to follow up with a mental health professional if needed. Then, instead of allowing your child to spend all their free time sitting on the couch with video games, get them up and moving.

How To Add Exercise to Your Child’s Day

Childhood obesity is becoming a growing problem in many countries. Some cases are so bad that children are being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, a disease that used to be isolated to older, overweight adults. As parents, it is our responsibility to help keep our child’s weight and health in check. A great way to do this is by getting children to exercise more often. This can help them to lose weight and simply be more healthy.

Here are a few tips to help you get your child up and moving:

1. Sign them up for group sports. These are not only a great way to get a workout, they also promote socialization and self pride. Plus, most kids think sports are fun. If you find a sport your child really likes, they’ll want to practice all the time and get more and more exercise. Try to enroll your child in a sport that promotes aerobic activity.
2. Don’t rely completely on sports. Some kids just don’t like sports. If this is the case, you need  to make adjustments to the plan. If they really don’t enjoy it, find something else for them to do. Many fitness centers offer classes for children including martial arts, dance, and even yoga.
3. Work out together. Children learn a lot of their behavior from their family. That means, if you sit around all day and don’t work out, that’s probably what they’re going to do. You should set a good example for your child by getting regular exercise. A great way for you to both get a workout is to find something you both enjoy and do it together.
4. Make it fun. You may enjoy the quiet time you get on a running on a treadmill, but you’re child is probably going to complain. Instead of doing normal adult workout routines, make up games, play sports, or dance. It doesn’t really matter what it is, just make sure it’s fun and entertaining for your child. Just be creative.
5. Cut back on T.V. and video games. The best way to keep your child from playing too many video games is to stop the problem before it starts. If you allow your child to veg out in front of the T.V. for hours at a time and then try to enforce restrictions, they’re going to rebel. It’s best to limit times of inactivity from a young age. If you’re having trouble getting your kids to give up the games, buy games that require physical activity like Dance Revolution or various games available on the Nintendo Wii. This is a great compromise where you both will win.
6. Fit it in where you can. Today children have busy schedules just like adults do. If you don’t have a large open chunk of time for your kids to get exercise, you can squeeze in small activities when you do have a few minutes free.

These are just a few ways to get your kid up and active. They may be resistant at first, but keep trying. Starting good exercise habits when your child is young is a vital part of a healthy adult lifestyle.