Toddlers not getting enough exercise

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Toddlers not getting enough exercise

Average 3-year-old leads sedentary life, study findsThe Associated

Press

Updated: 6:12 p.m. ET Jan. 29, 2004LONDON - New research suggests

even 3-year-olds aren’t getting enough exercise, raising concerns

over their weight, future disease risk, psychological well-being,

behavior and learning ability.

 

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In the first study to rigorously track the movements of preschoolers,

scientists found that the average 3-year-old is physically active for

just 20 minutes a day, well short of the recommended hour a day for

that age.

 

In The Lancet study published this month, scientists from the

University of Glasgow in Scotland recruited 78 children. Each

3-year-old wore an “accelerometer,” a matchbox-sized monitor clipped

to the waistband, for a week.

 

The device, worn from the time the children woke up until they went

to bed, gave minute-by-minute readings of the children’s pattern of

physical activity and the number of calories burned.

 

The toddlers were burning about 1,300 calories a day — less than the

1,500 calories recommended.

 

Declining levels of activity

While the problem is one of an imbalance of calories eaten and burned

up, experts believe the main reason is that children are not getting

enough exercise.

 

“There are really only two possibilities, reduced activity or

increased intake. None of the dietary assessment data indicate that

children are eating more. Adolescents may be eating more but young

children are eating less,” said the study’s leader, John Reilly, a

physiologist at the University of Glasgow.

 

In the study, the children were spending between nine and 10 hours of

their waking day hardly moving at all.

 

 

 

 

“A 3-year-old 25 years ago was eating 25 percent more than a

3-year-old today,” he said. “But physical activity levels have

dropped quite dramatically over the last 15 or 20 years.”

 

In the study, the children were spending between nine and 10 hours of

their waking day hardly moving at all.

 

“They may well have been doing a bit of fidgeting, they may have been

speaking to their parents or among themselves, but they were just not

moving enough to put up the number of calories burned beyond what it

would be if they were just resting or sleeping,” Reilly said.

 

The children spent 20 minutes a day in moderate to vigorous activity

— the type of activity that would get them feeling slightly warm and

slightly out of breath, such as running around, walking to keep up

with an adult and most types of outdoor play.

 

TVs, cars, safety concerns to blame?

All-day television and recorded videos are a major culprit, Reilly

said. Outside the home, children are also much less active than they

used to be.

 

“Many more journeys are made by car and among the 3-year-olds, a fair

number of them are being taken around in strollers when they could

arguably have been walking,” Reilly said.

 

Another element is recent concerns over safety. Some local

authorities in Britain have banned children from bringing balls into

playgrounds while others prohibit tree-climbing.

 

“There needs to be a balance. Perhaps we’ve taken the health and

safety agenda a bit far,” Reilly said.

 

The dangers of a sedentary childhood go beyond obesity, experts said.

More active children tend to be better behaved and scientists suspect

that more active children learn more effectively, perhaps because

physical activity is a stimulus to brain development.

 

“The increasingly sedentary nature of U.K. children is not unique and

is being seen in most countries around the world,” said James Hill of

the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado.

 

Small changes in behavior are all that is needed, said Hill, who was

not connected with the study.

 

In the days before videos and TV, young children didn’t sit for hours

staring at the wall, Reilly said. “They were perfectly capable of

finding other ways to amuse themselves. They had imaginations. They

still have imaginations,” he said.

 

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may

not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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