Parent Newsletters - Issue 13

No Limits Learning
kids goals Ezine

Issue 13, JULY 15th, /06

IN THIS PARENT NEWSLETTER

1. A WORD FROM THE EDITORS
2. EATING DISORDERS IN CHILDREN
3. EXERCISE FOR KIDS
4. KIDS CORNER COOKING AND CRAFTS
5. TICKLE YOUR FUNNYBONE (JOKES FOR KIDS BY KIDS)
6. WORDS OF INSPIRATION
7. SPONSORS

1. A WORD FROM THE EDITORS

Welcome to the next issue of kidsgoals.com Newsletter.

The articles in this issue will be dealing more with the physical health of our children. Our goal has always been to provide you with informative and thought provoking articles to help you instill values, self-esteem and positive traits in your children.

The first article will deal with eating disorders in children. In it you will find ways to help prevent your child from becoming an emotional eater and quite possibly save them from developing an eating disorder. As an added bonus make sure to visit the kidsgoals website for an interview with Sandra, a recovering bulimic. I think you will find it very enlightening.

The second article deals with the importance of exercise to help our children not only stay physically healthy but also reap incredible benefits for their emotional health.

Please help us by emailing Cassie or Monicka at kidsgoals.com with your questions, comments and suggestions for future issues

Monicka

2. EATING DISORDERS IN CHILDREN

During a recent conversation with my 22-year-old daughter, she happened to mention that her friend Sandra suffered from bulimia. Frankly I was shocked! By all appearances Sandra seemed to have everything going for her. She was bright, extremely attractive and had just finished getting her university degree. After finishing up the phone call I started doing a bit more research on eating disorders in general and was horrified by what I found.

Recent studies have shown that that approximately 40% of 9 year olds in the US have already dieted and even more shocking, four and five year olds are feeling the need to diet. Whatever happened to kids just being kids? Why are young children feeling such pressure to be thin?

The family environment may be partially to blame. If one of the child’s parents are obsessed with their weight and appearance and constantly dieting and talking about how fat they are and how thin they would like to be, the child will receive the message that appearance is extremely important. Unfortunately there seems to be a bit of a double standard as boys are encouraged to clean their plate so they can grow up to be big and strong while girls are told to cut back on the sweets so you will have a nice figure when you grow up. There is a danger inherent in this approach, which could set up a child to develop an eating disorder. Children may also develop an eating disorder as a strategy to deal with the emotions that they are feeling, especially if they are raised in a home where showing emotion is frowned upon. Children who become compulsive eaters may be trying to use food as a panacea to help them deal with feelings of loneliness, anger, and sadness and abandonment. When a child is not able to express his or her emotions or if the parent is too involved to pay attention to their child, the child may turn to food to assuage their feelings of inadequacy.

Sadly the media and society in general also play a hand in this. Children are inundated on a daily basis with messages that being thin is necessary to be happy.

There are many things that you can do as a parent or caregiver if you are concerned that your child is using food for emotional reasons. It is important to find out how your child is feeling and what is making them turn to food for comfort. It is important never to criticize your child about their weight. Parents who put their children on a strict diet at a young age are setting them up to develop a serious eating disorder. This will not make your child lose weight, but will lead to feelings of self-loathing and cause the child to turn to food even more.

The most important thing that you can do as a parent is to set a good example. The following is a list will give you some simple but powerful ways to help your child so he or she does not develop an eating disorder.

Set a good example- Try to make most meals nutritionally sound.
Never force your child to clean his plate- Children naturally stop eating when full, by forcing your child to finish everything on his/her plate you are risking setting them up to have unsound feelings toward food.
Make exercise a priority- Help your children to find healthy activities that they enjoy, by making it a family affair and making it fun your child will develop a love for physical activity. It is important to instill in your child that exercise is to help develop a strong healthy body not to make them thin.
Teach your child its on the inside that counts the most- Show by example that people should be accepted for who they are, not what they look like on the outside.
Praise your children for their accomplishments not on their appearance- Instead of telling your daughter how pretty she is tell her how bright she is or what a good sense of humour she has etc. These are the praises that really count.
Show unconditional love-Show your child that no matter what they look like or what size they are that you love them. Give them your love and attention. Hug your children at every opportunity and tell them you love them. They can never hear it enough.

While the title of this article is Eating Disorders in Children, I chose not to go into detail about any specific disorder. For that information you can log onto the kidsgoals.com website and read a provocative interview that I had with Sandra, who is a recovering bulimic. Child Eating Disorders - Bulimia Interview

By Monicka

3. EXERCISE FOR KIDS

Exercises for kids – we all need exercise and kids are even more vulnerable to the adverse effects of a sedentary lifestyle than are adults. There is a widespread increase in weight problems in children, and it is unclear whether this is caused by changes in diet, reduction in exercise or – most likely – a combination of the two.

An extensive review of data by the British Journal of Sports Medicine (2005) included something very interesting in its conclusions – the researchers found that organized physical activity like walking/cycling to school, physical education, and organized sports are declining in many countries. And even more significant, children want to be more active than they are but frustrated by things like school policy, parent’s safety rules, convenience and accessibility.

There is a clear message for us parents here – we need to incorporate physical activity into the lives of our children, and make exercise both easily accessible and fun.

This doesn’t mean an expensive gym subscription! Here are some ideas to get you going, whatever the age of your children.

Babies and Toddlers

We often start off on the wrong foot when it comes to exercise. When a baby gets to the crawling / trying to walk stage, just when she desperately needs a lot of exercise and practice moving, we so often restrict the infant’s movement using car seats and the like.

If you have a child of this age, it is very important that you let her have free playtime on the floor several times a day. Try to get into the habit of finding somewhere safe for her to play, inside or out, while you are doing your own thing nearby.

Unless a toddler is sleeping, it’s really not a good idea for her to be sedentary for more than an hour at a time.

Primary School Kids

Small children are designed to have many brief periods of moderate to intense activity during the day. Like toddlers, they should not have prolonged periods of inactivity, nor should they be expected to perform endurance exercise.

You should also be careful with this age group with regard to organized sports – participation can certainly be encouraged, but don’t push the child into it if he is not keen. Studies published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise show that forcing kids to participate in structured exercise turns them off exercise later in life.

If your children become involved in an organized sport at this age, be careful that it does not place too much physical or emotional strain on them.

Rather, emphasize your attention on fun games and activities that enable the child to exercise, test his limits and practice the basic movement skills (running, jumping, stretching, etc) Also try to incorporate physical exercise into your normal day-to-day activities:

1. Walking or cycling to school is extremely beneficial

2. Limit sedentary activities, in particular TV watching. Replace with active games where possible.

3. Make a game out of doing outdoor and indoor chores together. Young kids enjoy doing things WITH you, and many mundane chores are both great exercise and can be good fun if approached in the right spirit. Wash the car together, rake the yard, dance together while doing the dusting, and get fitter without even noticing!

4. If your kids are video game addicts, try introducing more active video games such as Dance Revolution or Game boy’s Boktai, which needs players to keep running outside to charge up their gun with real sunlight!

Older Kids (10+)

This age group and upwards is where organized, competitive sports really come into their own. With a bit of luck, your kids will get a lot of good exercise through team sports at school – but very often the school will not provide sufficient organized activities. For example when my stepdaughter was 13 she was on a basketball team at school and absolutely loved it! But she was so disappointed to find the following year that there was no girls’ team for basketball – the only way for her to play was to join a team outside of the school. You may find that you need to take the initiative to ensure that your child has regular access to the sport of her choice, and seek out weekend opportunities (note: watch out for our article, coming soon, on being a coach for your kid’s favourite sports team!) If your child is a little introverted, she might prefer something less demanding socially, for example hiking.

Extra benefits of exercise for kids

As well as the obvious health benefits of exercise for kids, there are secondary benefits such as an increase in self-esteem, and the feel-good factor from endorphins released during exercise.

A recent study (Frost & McKelvie, Department of Psychology, Bishop's University, 2005) demonstrated that in children, teenagers and young adults there is a clear relationship between exercise and self-esteem, which persists across all these age groups and both sexes.

At any age, you can start to point out to your child how good one feels during and after exercise. Exercising the body definitely makes the mind feel happier! Monicka pointed this out to me just the other day, when she mentioned that Suzannah, who sometimes comes home from school a little sad, came back happy in spite of reporting that she had not had a great day. Said Suzannah, “I played badminton this afternoon and it made me feel a whole lot better.” Wisdom from the mouths of babes!

Help your kids enjoy exercise and give them a life long gift that will help them be healthier and happier!

By Cassie

4. KIDS CORNER COOKING AND CRAFTS

FRIDGE MAGNET ( 6 AND UP WITH ADULT SUPERVISION)

Frozen concentrated juice can lid
Flattish magnet
Strong glue
Stuff to decorate

1. Wash your juice can lid

2. When you lay your lid on the table, you will see that one side will be all in contact with the table – this is where you will attach your magnet - and one side will only have the rim in contact with the table.

3. Glue your magnet to the lid

4. Decorate the other side any way you like! Some ideas are to use felt, or a thin layer of plasticine which you can stick stones and other items into. You could glue leaves and feathers to your magnet, or use paints or coloured paper.

5. Don't make it TOO heavy! Otherwise the magnet won't hold. You can always stick two magnets to the back if you need to.

Here is an example that Justin made! fridge magnet kid craft

Recipe - Fruit Cone

Ingredients:

A mixture of fresh fruit, like banana, apple and strawberry (or whatever is in season) - cut into small pieces
ice cream cone
honey
granola
real fruit flavoured yogurt (frozen or regular)

Fill the ice cream cones with the diced fresh fruit and yogurt, drizzle with honey if desired, and use a little granola as a topping. Enjoy!!!

5. TICKLE YOUR FUNNYBONE

"Inside me there's a thin person struggling to get out.... but I can usually sedate her with four or five doughnuts."

My gym teacher told me to touch my toes. I said, "I don't have that kind of relationship with my feet. Can I just wave?"

Overweight blonde joke

A blonde is terribly overweight, so her doctor puts her on a diet. "I want you to eat regularly for two days, then skip a day, and repeat this procedure for two weeks. The next time I see you, you'll have lost at least five pounds."

When the blonde returns, she's lost nearly 20 pounds. "Why, that's amazing!" the doctor says. "Did you follow my instructions?"

The blonde nods. "I'll tell you, though, I thought I was going to drop dead that third day."

"From hunger, you mean?" asked the doctor.

"No, from skipping."

6. WORDS OF INSPIRATION

“Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness." -- Edward Stanley

"If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all." -- Joey Adams

"To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art." -- La Rochefoucauld

"The wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings. Let food be your medicine." – Hippocrates

7. SPONSORS

If you can suggest any organizations or websites that might want to sponsor this newsletter, or reprint our articles, please email Cassie or Monicka at kidsgoals.com.

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