A new study published today suggests that sports team participation is one of the ways that our children can avoid becoming obese. Most who hear of the study will say that that is common sense and we didn’t need a potentially costly study to tell us that. While I have some problems with some of the statements made by the authors as they interpreted their findings, I do believe that studies like these are important. Let me explain. These researchers called several hundred families with children in early high school in Vermont and New Hampshire. They asked for their weights and heights and if they participated on a sports team in the past year and if so, how many teams. They found that if a child was not on any sports team or on only one team during the year, that they were more likely to be obese than those kids on 2 teams or more. Just being on one team did not protect the children as much as those on 2 or more teams.

What I see as the real information for parents here is that kids needs year round activity. Some find this by participating on multiple sports teams and some find it outside of teams altogether. But, the most important fact is that way too many children are not finding their way to enough activity at all. The most successful families at maintaining healthy weights are those who are active together. When your child asks you, the parent, to play in the hot weather outside in the summer, you need to say “yes.” If it is a cold winter day with snow on the ground, parents need to turn off the television and put down the smartphone and go outside with their children. Parents are modeling behavior every day for their children. This goes far beyond activity levels. Children learn what is acceptable from their parents on all levels: speeding in a car, wearing seatbelts, wearing bike helmets, smoking, texting while driving. What parents should do is say to themselves, “Do I want my child doing this behavior?” And if not, then they need to model the behavior they want from their child.

The other thing I think this study helps highlight is that many families don’t know what appropriate levels of activity for children are. When I hear a parent say to me as a pediatrician that their child is “active,” I’m not sure what they mean. Sometimes they simply mean that their child is outside. My question to them is, “they are outside doing what?” Just being outside is not enough. The kind of activity that we as pediatricians believe our children need is, on average, one hour of moderate to vigorous activity per day. This means anything that increases your heart rate, breathing rate and, many times, makes you sweat. While walking the dog, playing outfield on a baseball team or being goalie in soccer are all potentially fun and certainly beat sitting and playing a video game, they are activities that count toward moderate or vigorous activity. Now, if the dog runs and you chase it, or you run laps during baseball practice, or you take turns in positions in soccer and get time running the field – that counts. This type of activity leads to better sleep, which leads to better attention in school and more energy the next day want to be active again.

Let me know your thoughts on this subject or others you would like to discuss in this forum. Until next time, be active with your family.