Category Archives: Children

Soccer is Heart and Bone Healthy

I love this article about The effects of Soccer on Health.  Exercise via soccer has a great impact on cardiovascular health and bone mineral density (and more) when played 2-3 times per week.  Also, exercise in this method probably has a higher rate of compliance and follow-through.  So what what can I glean from the sport of soccer and take it away to my particular exercise of choice?  Enjoyable, group experience, stop and start cardio, movement out of one spot…..  Maybe its the variety within the sport that makes it something a person wants to do multiple times a week.  This goes back to my mantra of cross-training as a lifestyle.

soccer

Hiking with Kids

Just make it simple please!!!

My philosophy: Start them now!

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Gear:  Get them a hydration pack such as a camelpak.  We have this one but any 1/5L small one will do for your kid as young as three and up to 12!  Yes! The kids can put their own snacks in the pack such as: apple slices, trail mix, veggie sticks, dates, and/or a healthy bar.

Hiking Trails:  Check out this book for the whole family ~ Coast to Cactus: The Canyoneer Trail Guide to San Diego Outdoors  (page 363 has a great 3 mile hike for as young as 6 yrs called the Azalea Glen Loop Trail)

Character Building:  Snacktime is at the halfway point or depending on timing “the top”

 

 

DIY Liquid Handsoap – Castile Soap

Castile Soap is a vegetable based soap and perfect for a non-toxic hand washing experience.castilesoap

How to make handmade soap (super simple super easy!)

1/2 c Distilled Water
1/2 c Castile Soap
1 TB Sweet Almond oil or Jojoba oil or Olive oil
1 TB Vitamin E oil (optional)

Make sure to fill water first then add the rest of the ingredients and any optional scents – see below. Shake it baby!

WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!  How to make FOAMING handmade soap (still super simple super easy!)

Foaming dispenser (yes that’s all you need!)
1 1/2 c Distilled Water
2 TB  Castile Soap
1 tsp Sweet Almond oil or Jojoba oil or Olive oil
1 tsp Vitamin E oil (optional)

Just make sure to fill the water FIRST to about 1 inch from the top of dispenser and any optional scents – see below.  Shake it baby!

Optional

Essential oils: about 5 drops each

*Lavender
*Tea Tree (Melaluca)

Nature Kit’s

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Sample of some of the items

Kids LOVE these!!!  Toss out the video games, turn off the TV, and go to the dollar store and make a Nature Kit!  I just took some old fabric and a shoelace and made the bags myself.

Here is what I put in my kids Nature Kits:

    • small plastic bottles
    • tweezers
    • small notebook
    • gardening gloves
    • magnifying glass
    • tape measure
    • pencil
    • pencil sharpener
    • colored pencils
    • small sand shovel
    • sifter
    • tape
    • hat
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A few of the items shown

Trunk and Core Exercises to Prevent Low Back Pain

Because so many adults suffer from lower back pain, core exercise training is a must to include in an exercise routine which could then alleviate or lower back pain occurrences.  I believe it should be done after childbirth as well (however never do any abdominal or core work without knowing what your transverse abs are and how to hold them in!!)

“Since risk factors of LBP (Low Back Pain) are thought to commence during childhood, results of this study suggest that it may be desirable for children and adolescents to perform moderate-to-high intensity dynamic core exercises during physical education warm-up to improve trunk and core muscular endurance.” read more here

Here is some tools to get you started to help your kids improve their core strength:

Fun Core Exercises For Kids!
Core Strength Activities for Preschoolers and Beginners
Core strength and postural control needed for fine motor skills in children
Kid Ab Workout (video)
Winning Core Body Exercises for Kids (video)

Vitamin D and its orgins in adiposity

There has been so much interest in Vitamin D and the research is ongoing.

Here is a what they have found: “Lower vitamin D status was associated with lower fat mass in the offspring at birth but with greater fat mass at ages 4 and 6 y.”  Interesting!

Maternal vitamin D status in pregnancy is associated with adiposity in the offspring: findings from the Southampton Women’s Survey.

Could Low Vitamin D Be a Piece of the Childhood Obesity Puzzle?

A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

Interested in Tooth Decay and what you can learn from the traditional diets? This is an great link by Weston A. Price with a wealth of information.  It also has chapter and topic links so you don’t have to scroll through the whole thing.  Click here for the ebook.

Staying fit as a parent, help your child maintain a healthy weight

What!!  Yes, its true.  You have a big responsibly to stay fit as a parent.  Why?  Because parental obesity before pregnancy and up through your child’s adolescence years is a very strong prediction factor to your child being overweight.  Its as simple as that-stay fit.  But harder to make the changes so start now!!  Don’t be discouraged either ~ Can your genes be changed after you are born?–click here.

Source: Jääskeläinen A, et al,  Intergenerational transmission of overweight among Finnish adolescents and their parents: a 16-year follow-up study., Int J Obes (Lond). 2011 Oct;35(10):1289-94.

Maternal weight gain and risk for obesity in offspring

Yes, you can influence your child’s weight during pregnancy.  A study done in Finland showed that a maternal weight gain of more than 7 kg (or 15.4 pounds) in the first 20 weeks of gestation predicts overweight/obesity (using BMI) and abdominal obesity in adolescence.  However, an even stronger predictor of adolescent overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity was maternal obesity before pregnancy.

If you fall in this category, and you want your children to be as healthy as possible, not all hope is lost.  Please see the post on how lifestyle behaviors can change those children that have predetermined obesity risks.

Source: Laitinen J, et al, Maternal weight gain during the first half of pregnancy and offspring obesity at 16 years: a prospective cohort study, 2012 May;119(6):716-23. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-0528.2012.03319.x.

Can eating 5 meals a day reduce your child’s risk for obesity?

The answer is “Yes!” based on a 2013 Northern Finland Birth Cohort study of adolescents aged 16 years.  The data collection on the population began prenatally up until the age of 16 years.

Previously, the results of a study on the same Finnish population showed that environmental factors such as physical activity could modify the effect of common obesity-susceptibility gene variants.  This means that those children who carried the genes associated with the risk for obesity could stop their predisposition to obesity by modifying their lifestyle behaviors. The researchers also showed in a previous study that eating 5 meals a day reduced abdominal obesity in children.

Specifically, for this current study,  two meal patterns where looked at:  those that ate 5 meals per day and those that ate 4 meals or less per day on the relation between obesity-related genotypes and body mass index (BMI) among the 16 year olds.   A genetic risk score (a multiple-locus indicator based on eight obesity-susceptibility loci) and a separate analysis of the effects of two well-established obesity loci, FTO and MC4R, on BMI were analyzed.

Results showed:

  1. A 5 meal a day pattern (including breakfast) decreased the predisposition to increasing BMI
  2. Those that skipped breakfast had a greater increase in BMI

I loved reading up on this study because it shows that even though you may be born with a set of genetic predispositions to obesity you still have the power to be at a healthy weight.  And it starts in childhood.  What power parents have to influence their kids and impact their health!!  Interested in the effect of maternal weigth gain and obesity risk? Click here

Source: PLOS One, September 2013 | Volume 8 | Issue 9 | e73802: Jaaskelainen A, Schwab U, Kolehmainen M, Kaakinen M, Savolainen MJ, et al. (2013) Meal Frequencies Modify the Effect of Common Genetic Variants on Body Mass Index in Adolescents of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986. PLoS ONE 8(9): e73802. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0073802