Toddler Fitness (Or Why We Need To Reduce Screen Time Before It Hurts Our Children)

Todays toddlers are unfit.. that’s not a headline you’d expect to hear, surely little children are the only ones in our society who naturally use all the energy given to them? If you have a toddler in your house you probably think they never sit still but studies are showing that disturbingly, toddlers are not as active as they were a generation ago and as a society we are about to discover just how dangerous this can be for long term health outcomes.

I could start quoting you a heap of very scary statistics now. Children today are 15% less fit than their parents (a Babytalk Radio Program story from January). Forty percent of British Children rarely play outside 13% never do (Babytalk Facebook Post) last week). I have been guilty of the assumption that babies, toddlers and children find their own rhythm when it comes to activities and fitness but it seems that modern life is slowing them down significantly.

A study by Deakin University Centre of Physical Activity and Nutrition Research has found that half of 19 month olds are not meeting the daily physical activity guidelines for their age group. The other interesting piece of information is that there is no real measure of toddler activity from around the world so in one sense we don’t know exactly what the baseline is for how active our babies are meant to be.

Dr Kylie Hesketh is leading this research with a group of 295 Children in the InFANT program and while her program is tracking these children their health, activity and fitness the research centre at Deakin is also building a data base of what should be normal levels of activity for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers.

So what is it that’s stealing our children’s fitness and jepoardising their future health? The quick answer is screens. TVs, Computers, iPads, gadgets, phones, the tempting, thrilling pieces of technology that are sometimes a godsend to frazzled parents. The wake up call is clear, as we can possibly make it. Our children’s future health is at risk, we introduce screentime to our little ones and put them in the way of great harm. We need to start them moving and playing and getting them outside to be as active as possible. It is a clear message to me as a parent who mistakenly believed that children are able to regulate their own level of exercise. It is clear that screens on TVs, phones, and computers are addictive and seductive to small children, they do not realise they are compromising their health and possible development but we as parents now do.