Empowering Healthy Kids Blog

NSW Government launches a pre-school programme:

Munch and Move is a fun, games-based program for NSW preschools.  It supports the healthy development of young children by promoting physical activity, healthy eating and reduced small screen time (TV, DVD, computers).

• Children will have the opportunity to engage in skills-based active play and learn about healthy choices through a range of learning experiences.
• Parent focused support materials, including fact sheets will provide simple tips and ideas for practising healthy, active behaviours at home .

The program is a joint initiative of the NSW Department of Health, the NSW Department of Community Services and The University of Sydney.

From The Age:

A NATIONAL campaign to combat obesity by using sports equipment to reward children who exercise for an hour a day will be discussed this week at a meeting of education ministers.

Under the plan, which is being introduced in the ACT this year, all schools would be invited to participate in a 10-week competition, with equipment given to children who successfully meet the challenge.

The exercise need not happen in one session and could be accumulated during the day by walking or riding to school, participating in physical education at school and sport after school and on weekends

I wonder though - wouldn’t children who want sport equipment are already motivated to play sports in the first place? In any case, as long as the competition is voluntary, this seems like a good idea.

It’s great to have a treadmill at home - sets a good example for the kids (provided it is actually used). Anyway, be careful:

SMALL children are getting their hands caught and their skin ripped off by home fitness treadmills

Spotted this in the local paper this morning. Woolworths are providing up to $5000 grants under their “Woolworths Fresh Food Kids Community Grants” programme to local community groups for projects that help Primary school aged children lead healthier more active lives.

Applications close 25 April 2008.

I was fortunate enough to go back to my home town of Perth, Western Australia for the Australia Day long weekend. On a sunny afternoon, with the Fremantle Doctor providing some relief, my brother Ash organised a neighbourhood match. After the obligatory 1/2 hour of dilly dallying while picking teams, it was on. We won by about 50 runs - as is normally the case no one really kept track of the score at the end.

One thing that struck me were the fact that the boys (age ranging from 12 to 30*) was that they just couldn’t keep still. Players waiting to bat, practiced in the nets, others played soccer. I could do the usual thing and analyse how video games, TV (Aussies were playing India in the 4th test that day, by the way) hadn’t affected these kids. But it was just great fun.

By the way, I scored 1 run from 5 balls; dropped a catch that went for six; and went 0-6 of two overs. Urghh.

This is where we played:

Winthrop Primary

* I was the 30 year old

Over the weekend I visited Ashcombe Maze, in the Mornington Peninsula region, south-east of Melbourne. Its claim to fame are its two hedge mazes, but for me it was the Great Gnome Hunt and the Fairy Hunt, that I enjoyed the most. Whilst these activities were meant for kids, I had a great time traipsing through the wonderful forrests and gardens looking for gnomes and fairies. There were a few families with kids also participating, running around trying to be the first to spot them in the trees above. It’s a great day activity for the family that gets them moving!

Here’s a satellite view of the maze:

Ashcombe Maze

A while back, I met the Health and Wellbeing Co-Ordinator at Clifton Hill Primary school who participates in the promoting healthy food (healthy canteeens, Free Fruit Fridays etc.). It seemed like an excellent programme and kids seemed to be responding well. Now, I’ve just read this:

A HEALTHY eating program run in almost 100 primary schools may have to be scrapped this year because of a lack of funding.

Just weeks out from the start of the school year, Nutrition Australia, which has run the Healthy Eating Schools program since 2005, is yet to secure a replacement sponsor for the $150,000- a-year program.

Last year’s corporate sponsor, the RACV, has pulled out, prompting Nutrition Australia to call on the State Government to step in.

Program manager Kelly Neville said 39,200 children participated in the program, which has led to a 30% drop in unhealthy items in some school canteens, while healthier canteen options have increased by 40%.

Michael Duffy comments on the fat test for 4 year olds:

‘One in four Australian children and one in two adults are already overweight or obese,” the Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon, told a conference of obesity experts this week.

Where are they, minister? In the past fortnight, I’ve been in the centres of Sydney and Melbourne, in Newcastle and Katoomba, and in Sydney suburbs including Maroubra, Gladesville and Parramatta. I’ve seen plenty of fat adults but nothing like one in two. I’ve seen thousands of children, but were a quarter of them fat? No way.

So we have to ask again, where are they? Either Australia’s fat people are hiding, too scared to come out and incur the wrath of the Health Minister, or else something fishy is going on. As fishy as Roxon’s other claim, that obesity is costing the economy $21 billion a year.

The claims were made this week to justify the Government’s absurd plan to have every four-year-old weighed before they go to school, starting next year. This will add a quarter of a million extra tasks to the workload of our general practitioners and health clinics.

I commented earlier that the idea had some if it was used for non-identifiable, general statistics. I hadn’t considered the extra burden it would place on the health system. So I did some quick back of the envelope calculations. From the ABS National Schools Statistics Collection, 2003, there are 214,000 of pre-year 1’s (the targets of this test). Assume that each child takes 5 minutes to measure, record and collate the data. That’s an extra 17, 833 hours of labour required to conduct these tests.

New Australian health minister, Nicola Roxon, announced recently that, starting in 2009,  Body Mass Index (BMI) tests will be conducted on 4 year olds. While there is a lack of detail in this new policy, my immediate reaction is that it is a positive move ONLY if the results are confidential and use for statistical information only. We do not want to get into a situation where children a “branded” and stigmatised in schools.

This got me thinking (again) about the role of government in solving childhood obesity.  The role of government to educate and create an environment for people to make decisions for themselves. It is their role to create an environment so that the marketplace of ideas can flow freely and allow new innovative solutions to flourish. If, as a society, we decide to wait for a government solution,  organisations and individuals are discouraged from seeking their novel solutions as it becomes “the government’s problem.”

Most parents are aware of childhood obesity and can make informed decisions about their families health and wellbeing. Childhood obesity will not be solved by government “junk food” taxes and bans. It will be solved from the ground-up, from children, parents, schools, businesses and local communities. Let them figure out the solution.

Results just in:

A total of 312 primary schools across Victoria participated in last month’s Walktober Walk to School event which aimed to get ‘active transport’ - be it walking or cycling – on the daily agenda of families.

More than 56,000 Victorian children participated; that’s 18,000 more students than last year.

Twenty-nine primary schools reported that 100 per cent of students walked to school on the day, as compared with 15 schools in 2006.

Well done!