Make Summertime a Healthy Time

Everybody looks forward to vacations and holidays, and perhaps no period of time off is more anticipated than summer break. But as the first active days of the season turn into the lazier days of late summer, children often get bored and sit down in front of the TV with an unhealthy bag of potato chips!

Remember, children older than two years old need a minimum of one hour a day of moderate physical activity. Achieving this level of activity is important to minimize their later risk for obesity and the diseases associated with it. Adequate physical activity independently decreases the risk for heart disease later in life and is important for the normal development of strong bones.

As with vegetables, many children think of exercise as "something that's good for you." Remember the tips offered earlier for getting your kids to eat those vegetables? Just as you can disguise vegetables in other foods or offer a variety of them from which your child can choose, so it goes with exercise! A family hike or an afternoon flying a kite together is exercise in disguise. So is a day building sand castles or playing Wiffle ball on the beach. When we don't offer our kids any opportunities for exercise, it's not fair to expect them to get off the couch every day on their own.

More on: Healthy Meals for Families

Excerpted from:

From Raising Healthy Eaters: 100 Tips for Parents by Henry Legere, M.D. Copyright © 2004. Used by arrangement with The Perseus Books Group.

To order this book visit perseusbooksgroup.com.