Changing Family Life, are computer games, phones and gadgets making kids fat

Do you ever look back at your childhood with rose tinted spectacles? Those care-free days where summers were actually warm, and the days seemed to go of for ever. Rushing down your breakfast so you could escape from the house to see your friends and spend hours roller-skating, climbing trees, and riding around on proper scooters that had big wheels, with tassels fluttering from your handle bars, not like these modern micro-scooters you get today.

How times have changed! With the new computer generation of kids, you will more than likely find them staring at a computer screen than riding a bike. Or if you do spot one actually outside walking in the fresh air, they seem to be permanently attached to a phone, either talking, texting or playing with their aps! Hardly as exciting or physically challenging as climbing a tree is it?

So are computer games, phones and other electronic gadgets really to blame for the rise in obesity amongst the current generation of children?

A child's health and family life can be severely affected by obesity. Resulting problems can be carried on into teen years, and eventually, to adulthood. Of course, when a child is overweight they can become targets of school bullies, which could lead to a whole host of psychological problems you will need to tackle along with their weight problem.

Getting kids into a regular routine from an early age that incorporates plenty of healthy exercise can be one of the most important steps to avoid gaining unhealthy weight, and addressing your family health needs. Getting outside for a bit of family outdoor fun is a great first step. Going out for a family walk or nature ramble at weekends, or take along some sports equipment to use at your local park, such as rackets, different sized balls, skipping ropes, hula hoops, bean bags, a frizbee or a kite. Doing this on a regular basis can also encourage them to discover an activity or sport they would like to take up, such as the school football, netball or athletics team. It may even encourage them to take up an out of school activity such as Cub Scouts, Rainbows and Brownies, or joining a club to learn martial arts. All these activities are healthy both physically and mentally, and will foster good relationships with other children and adults.

Banning children from using the computer or games console will only cause resentment, so why not encourage child & family health with the playing of sports or activity games where the whole family can get involved. There are lots of options with modern consoles for games that get you up off the sofa and be physically active to play the games. Examples are tennis, golf, bowling, hula-hooping, ski-jumping, slalom skiing, baseball, and many more! There are even games aimed more at younger children that involve jumping over imaginary objects, leaping around catching flying creatures, and balancing games. So there's no excuse for only having games that do no more than exercise your thumbs anymore!

Getting your children to eat healthy food can sometimes be difficult. So if they already eat a particular healthy food without fuss, such as apples and carrots, why not see if you can increase the amount by an extra portion a day. Give them an extra apple after dinner instead of a sugary pudding, or add some raw carrot sticks to their lunchbox if they happily eat carrots with their dinner. Try serving fresh fruit salad with natural yoghurt as a dessert twice a week, replacing a stodgy pudding. Instead of chocolate bars, buy in some dried apricots, dates and raisins. Make some healthy cereal bars and cookies with rolled oats and dried fruits instead of eating ready-made biscuits, which are packed full of fat, sugar and chemical preservatives. Check out the nut section of the snack isle in the supermarket. Choose almonds, cashews, or mixed fruit and nuts as an alternative to unhealthy crisps. Remember to make small changes rather than jumping in and replacing everything at once. Phase out one unhealthy snack at a time, then when your child accepts the alternative, move onto the next.

I hope you will find some of these tips useful.

Here is to good health and family life!

In the spirit of theme for keeping kids healthy and active, here are some ideas for quite silly, but fun games to play outdoors.
Wellie Wanging!
Dig out your wellies for this one! You will need: Wellingtons, hula hoops or a long ball of string, paper and crayons.

Make up some score sheets with paper and crayons. You will need to make one each with 10, 20, 50, and 100 written on in large, bold numbers. Gather up all your wellies along with any hula hoops you have and head out to the garden or local park. If you don't have any hula hoops you can use lengths of string to make circles on the floor instead. Spread out the hula hoops or make string circles, then place one of the score cards in the centre of the circle. Make a line with another long piece of string for you to stand behind. Take it in turns to throw each Wellington aiming for different circles with each throw. If you succeed in landing a Wellington inside a hoop with no part of it touching the hoop or going outside of the hoop, you score the points on the score card. The winner is the person with the highest score.

Double Football
This is a really silly game that will have you laughing while you play! You will need two footballs, and a couple of sweatshirts or jumpers for the goal posts. The idea is that instead of kicking one ball into the goal, you have to kick both balls at the same time. You only score a goal when both balls go through the goal posts. You will be running all over the place retrieving the balls as they fly off in all directions!

Don't forget that we are collecting your favourite family recipes to include in our new cook-book, so email us your favourite recipes for inclusion and we will credit your for the recipe and give you a free copy of the completed book as a thank you!
You can pass on your favourite recipes by visiting our website at the big arrow link below.

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Wishing you the best of Family Life.

Michelle
Joint Editor, Cotswold Family Life