According to a recent study, the percentage of overweight children in the United States has doubled in the last 30 years. And while many factors have contributed to this epidemic, most health experts agree that kids are simply not moving as much as their parents did when they were young. The bottom line: We are a nation of sedentary individuals and our children are the youngest victims.
In a recent report the American Academy of Pediatrics noted that the average child watches roughly 3 hours of television a day. What’s more, those same kids spend an additional 2.5 hours sitting around playing video games or working on the computer. These facts are especially disturbing to those in the medical community who insist that young children should not be inactive for prolonged periods of time. In fact, some doctors say that unless a young child is sleeping he or she should be moving at least once an hour. And school-age children should not be inactive for periods longer than 2 hours.
Health experts say one of the best ways to get kids to be more active is to limit the amount of time spent in sedentary activities, such as watching TV or playing video games. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under the age of 2 years watch no TV at all and that viewing time should be limited to no more than 1 to 2 hours of “quality programming” a day for kids 2 years and older.
The American Academy of Pediatrics also recently updated its guide detailing how much exercise a child should get in a day.
Here are the current activity recommendations for kids, according to medical experts:
Infants—-No specific requirements for minimum daily activity, though parents should encourage motor development.
Toddlers—-At least 90 minutes of physical activity per day.
Preschoolers–At least 2 hours of physical activity per day, which can be split between planned exercise and free play.
School Age Children—-At least an hour of physical activity per day broken up into spurts of 15 minutes or more.
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