Healthier Children Through Play

There are words of gloom and doom all over the media these days: Our children are out of shape, lazy,  fat, and developing adult lifestyle-related illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes. And, what is even more frightening, for the first time, this new generation may actually have a shorter lifespan than that of the generation before. Is it all this serious? Is this just a Chicken Little "the sky is falling" subject? Unfortunately, the answer is, yes, it is this serious and no, it's not a Chicken Little scenario.

According to the Nemours Foundation, one out of three American children are overweight or obese. In Canada, it's estimated that 26% of children are overweight or obese. This isn't just a few children. This is millions of children in North America whose health is at risk.


So, what is causing the problem? Why are so many of our children so overweight? Unfortunately, it's not just one thing. Of course, diet is a major issue - generally children who eat well-balanced and healthy portions of meals don't have a weight issue. But our society pushes high calorie, high fat, processed foods because everything has to be done fast, be ready, and convenient. And these are generally not the health choices. The other main culprit for the child obesity problem is lack of exercise. If you don't exercise, use your body, you can't burn off excess calories. Not only will the weight come on, the muscles won't get strong and the whole body suffers.


Is There Time for Play?


"But there's no time for play," you may say. Between the children being at school (sometimes with rather long commutes), at daycare, at music lessons, doing their homework, and so on, where will they find the time to be active?


It used to be that children had plenty of active time at school. Between the recesses in the morning (and sometimes afternoon), plus the play period after lunch, children had the opportunity to run around the school yard, play tag, toss a ball, and just be free to have fun. Unfortunately though, recesses are being cut back in some schools. There's even talk of eliminating them in some places. In addition, many schools use recess as a punishment. If a student doesn't behave or hasn't done her homework, for example, recess is taken away - effectively eliminating any chance the child has for burning off any energy and experiencing social interaction beyond that of inside classes.


Playing at home outside after school isn't an option for many children. They either live in parts of the city where they can't safely play unsupervised; they're in daycare or after school care, so not at home; or there isn't anyone else around to play with them because either the neighborhood children are not allowed the freedom to play outside or they are themselves in daycare.



Another opportunity for exercise used to be from getting to and from school. Children would walk back and forth or ride their bikes. That's not a common sight these days. Parents are often seen driving their children to school even if they only live a few blocks away. For some parents, it is a matter of convenience - they're dropping off their children at school while on the way to work, but other parents don't want to walk (or bike) with their children and they certainly don't trust their children to go alone. The result: no exercise for either child or parent.


Finding the Time for Play


It may seem rather simplistic to say that all we need to do is find the time for children to play, but it could be as simple as that. However, finding the time itself isn't always the easy part. In order for each family to decide that they need to exercise more, allow their children more freedom in what they play and when, the family has to find out what is preventing the play time. If it's because the children have too much homework, this is an issue that should be brought up to the school. If it's lack of space, you may have to look for available play space. If it's time, then scheduling play time, free time, needs to become a priority. Our children are not as healthy as they should be and allowing them to play, to run, to enjoy being children is actually a good way to improve their health. Isn't it worth the investment?

To read about games that we used to play as children and some blog posts and article on playing, visit GamesWeUsedToPlay.ca. 

Games We Used to Play

Every generation says the generation before is different - and this isn't usually meant in a good way. The older generation complains that the newer one doesn't have the same work ethic, doesn't have the same respect for elders, and so on. Now, whether that is true, I can't say, but I do know that the children of today, in North American society, often do not have the same opportunities for free play that we did. This, to me, means they are missing out on something vital, something important in their development.

When we played for hours with our friends, without adult supervision, while we were having fun, we also had to make rules, enforce rules, mediate problems, and sometimes learn to deal with things that just weren't fair. These are all tools that we took with us into adulthood. Was it fair to always be picked last for a team? No, of course not. Is it fair when the child with the ball takes it home because he feels that he wasn't being treated with enough respect? Again, of course not. But much of this was negated by the fun of playing hours long games of tag and hide-and-seek, without being told to be careful, watch what you're doing....

There is a lot of research going on into the importance of free play and it is quite interesting. To encourage discussion of the subject, I have started a website called Games We Used to Play: A Hop, Skip and Jump Down Memory Lane.

The goal of the site is to gather as many stories of games from across the world as we can. One person from one country may post they played a certain game one way, but someone else may recognize it as a game they called a different name and they played with slightly different rules. I am also adding articles about different issues about free play and I encourage people to comment on them, to add their point of view.

Games We Used to Play also has a Facebook page, where we can share more information, and we are on Twitter, at @gamesweusedtopl.

Support Your School Nurse - Even if you don't have kids.

School nurses play a vital role in our society and most people probably don't even give them a second thought - unless they are thinking about the "cushy" job they may have. Those who think this may be surprised to learn that the school nurse they may remember from the childhood is long gone and the school nurses of today are in a specialty all its own.

In an article I wrote for GE Healthymagination This Isn't Your Mother's School Nurse, I talk about the many issues that school nurses face that they didn't exist a generation or so ago. School nurses are dealing with sick or disabled children who, years ago, would never have been able to attend a school or who may not have lived to school age.

School nurses also have to deal with children who may rarely, if ever, see a doctor or nurse practitioner outside of school. The children may either have no health insurance or may be in a family situation that doesn't allow for preventative health care. School nurses also have to deal with the realities of this generation, which include coordinating and running disaster plans for events such as natural disasters, crime and terrorism. They need to deal with children who are abused or neglected, as well as those who are homeless. And there is so much more.

It was very interesting to speak to the two nurses I interviewed for the article. There are statistics that show that schools who have nurses, particularly full-time nurses, have better attendance rates. We know that if children go to school regularly, they have a better chance of graduating and moving on to further education or finding good, productive work out of high school. School nurses do the actual nursing tasks that teachers and administrators have to do if there are no nurses - and in this day and age of education cutbacks, we can't afford to have teachers doing non-teaching work.

So, please, support your local school nurses. They need to be part of the core group of professionals students encounter at school every day. Having a school nurse is not a luxury. It's a necessity, whether you have children or not.

September is Sepsis Awareness Month

Infections - we all get them. We may get a cut on our leg that we didn't clean out properly or we may develop a urinary tract infection or even influenza. We may have surgery that has complications or develop a disease like cancer, that leaves us prone to getting infections. However we get the infection, be it viral, bacterial or fungal, there's always the chance that our body will overreact and we develop sepsis.

But what is sepsis? According to Sepsis Alliance, it's the body's toxic response to an infection. In other words, as your body tries to fight the infection, it goes into overdrive and ends up trying to kill you. Some people call it blood poisoning, but that isn't a good word for it because it doesn't accurately describe what is going on.

Once sepsis sets in, your body's organs begin to shut down and eventually, it may cause death. If not death, you could end up having a limb - or several - amputated in order to save your life.

Right now, every 1.75 seconds, someone in the world is diagnosed with severe sepsis. Many more are developing sepsis. In the United States, every 2.5 minutes, someone dies of sepsis. Thousands more are left with life-altering after effects.


September is Sepsis Awareness Month. Please take a few minutes to learn about sepsis and to spread the word. It may be a cliche, but the life you save may be your own.