5 Tips for Keeping Your Kids Active and Healthy

As you know most states require your kid to pass a sports physical i.e., a pre-participation physical evaluation (PPE) to take part in school sports (Davis et al., 2023). The purpose is to recognize conditions that predispose athletes to a higher risk of injury, illness, and even death.

Today, kids often fail to meet the recommended 60 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity. However, to pass a sports physical, your kid needs to be fairly active and healthy. Here are some tips for keeping your kid active and healthy:

1. Emphasize Fun

You must help your kids find a physical activity that they enjoy (CDC, 2022). When they enjoy physical activity, they are more inclined to continue it which will help them get active and healthy, and pass the sports physical.

If your kids get bored during the activity or if the activity feels like a chore or punishment, they will find ways to escape it and they may fail the sports physical.

2. Choose a Developmentally Appropriate Activity

You must choose a developmentally appropriate physical activity for your kids that may enable them to be active and healthy. Such activities include swimming, bicycle riding, or soccer (Lipnowski et al., 2012). These can help you raise an active child who can pass the sports physically easily.

3. Be a Role Model for your Child

You need to act as a role model and be physically active and healthy so that your kid may follow suit (Natale et al., 2014).

Kids whose parents engage in regular sports and physical activity are more likely to be active and pass the sports physical as compared to kids whose parents live a sedentary life.

4. Limit Screen Time

You should limit your kid’s screen time, i.e., time spent playing video games, watching television, and using computers.

These activities make your kids lazy and eat up their free time leaving behind little or no time for physical activity (Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness and Council on School Health, 2006). The time saved can be utilized for physical activity which will help them train to pass the sports physical.

5. Create Healthy Competition that may motivate your Kid to be Active and Healthy

Creating healthy competition can add fun and make physical activity more enjoyable. Thus, you should arrange informal competitions among neighborhood kids such as running races to motivate them to be active and healthy.

Such competitions include races, who can skip rope longest, seeing who can do the most jumping jacks, and so on.

WithCare Clinic provides sports physical to student athletes 

Looking to keep your young athletes healthy and ready for the upcoming sports season? WithCare Clinic is offering $19 sport physicals from July to September.

WithCare Clinic is a convenient family and urgent care clinic located in Bedford, Texas and extends services to Hurst, Euless, Colleyville, North Richland Hills, Irving, Arlington, Grand Prairie, and Grapevine. WithCare experienced clinician will thoroughly examine your child to ensure they are safe to participate in their favorite sports this season. Don’t wait until it’s too late! Visit WithCareClinic.com to schedule your child’s visit.

References

CDC. (2022, October 20). Making physical activity a part of a child’s life | physical activity | cdc. https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adding-pa/activities-children.html

Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness and Council on School Health. (2006). Active Healthy Living: Prevention of Childhood Obesity Through Increased Physical Activity. Pediatrics, 117(5), 1834–1842. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2006-0472

Davis, D. D., Gerena, L. A., & Kane, S. M. (2023). Sports physicals. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556111/

Lipnowski, S., LeBlanc, C., Canadian Paediatric Society, & Healthy Active Living and Sports Medicine Committee. (2012). Healthy active living: Physical activity guidelines for children and adolescents. Paediatrics & Child Health, 17(4), 209–210. https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/17.4.209

Natale, R. A., Messiah, S. E., Asfour, L., Uhlhorn, S. B., Delamater, A., & Arheart, K. L. (2014). Role Modeling as an Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Strategy: Effect of Parents and Teachers on Preschool Children’s Healthy Lifestyle Habits. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 35(6). https://journals.lww.com/jrnldbp/Fulltext/2014/07000/Role_Modeling_as_an_Early_Childhood_Obesity.4.aspx