Empowering Healthy Kids Blog

Gambado is another indoor playground located the UK (Beckenham, Chelsea and Watford). I like their concept of “play and learn” to get kids to be active.

Check out a tour of their facilities here.

(Via reader Ian).

Just stumbled across this indoor playground, Kid Space Adventures, built especially to encourage children to be active while having lots fun.

It’s a massive complex with:

The Orb

One of the largest play structures in the UK. Inside there are 11 thrill slides, sky spirals, a black hole and much, much more! The Orb is also designed to allow the largest of human creatures to use the equipment. You can challenge your kids in the interactive rooms playing the Crystal Cave, or try and beat them around the timed gauntlets. All ages welcome.

Climb Zone

Have you got what it takes to reach the top? Standing 25ft high our climbing wall is a real challenge - not just for children but for parents too.

Thunderball City

Unique to Kidspace, it’s a 3 level arena with 8 softball guns, cannons, hoists, illuminated targets and tippers. Adults are also welcome but remember to duck when those balls start flying!

Kidspace Gym

Kidspace Gym offers a huge variety of classes and sports activities. Other general courses for younger children include parent and child music sessions (for those who don’t mind making fools of themselves) and additional workshops will be available in our school holidays.
Cart Track

Kids can race each other around our tricky track (5kph top speed). Just like the real thing with pit stops and lapped times - will your child have the skill to finish first on the podium?

Sensory Town (under 4 zone)

A futuristic themed area designed for toddlers, with multi-sensory gizmos hidden in every corner for them to explore and play with. You’ll have to drag your child away! Under 4’s only - no older kids allowed. Sensory Town can hold up to 50 toddlers so there’s plenty of space.

Sky Trail

Over 3m above the restaurant is the Kidspace Sky Trail. Good balance is essential to tackle the 9 different elements including precarious planks, rickety bridges and lateral climbs. Don’t worry, your kids will be harnessed before taking the leap. Height restrictions apply - children over 1.2 metres only!

Aeroball Trampolines

How high can you go? During quieter periods we’ll bring out the trampolines.  Challenge your kids to a game of junior Aeroball by jumping as high as you can over the central net and score by putting the ball in the basket hoops. Ages 3 to12

The Centre

No, it’s not quite a spa, but it is a relaxing, exciting, secure, and comfortable air-conditioned environment. As a parent, the Centre has been designed for your peace of mind. There are flatscreen monitors to keep an eye on the children whilst you read your emails or surf the web at our computer pods. And there are monitored zones to separate the age groups where our staff will take the strain away, by entertaining and organising shows for the kids.

Via ClickPress:

ThinQFitness, the digital TV content company, and The Department of Health’s Change4Life movement, today announce a partnership to combat child obesity with a series of online videos, encouraging families to get together and exercise to avoid obesity and poor health.

As part of the Change4Life campaign to “eat well, move more and live longer,” ThinQFitness is providing a series of online family fitness videos to support the Change4Life messaging. Available online at http://www.thinqfitness.com/, the videos are aimed initially at helping families get kids “up and about’ and doing their “60 active minutes”. Further free videos will become available on the site over the coming weeks, and will address the complete Change4Life message around healthy eating and physical activity.

This is an interesting programme for kids in Suffolk Country, UK. The Suffolk Challenge aims to get Suffolk kids to be the healthiest in the nation by 2012, by having them register for the Activity Challenge.

More kids info available here too.

I love entrepreneurs:

AN Aylesbury fitness guru has turned entrepreneur by setting up her own business which aims to get young people fit and healthy using alternative fitness programmes.Kate Wells, 24, of Watermead, set up Wikidz exercise and fitness company with the ultimate aim of getting the Vale’s children fit and keeping them that way for life.

As the Government continues to try and tackle the issue of childhood obesity, the pressure is on for schools to provide more opportunities for youngsters to participate in physical activities as well as eating a balanced, healthy diet. This, Miss Wells believes, is where her company Wikidz comes in. She set up the company with business partner and ex-army fitness expert Karl Rowley in October 2008 and feels the time is right to start changing the mindsets of parents and youngsters alike.

For the next two weeks at the William Harding School in Aylesbury, Miss Wells will be teaching her ‘Team Energy’ programme to Year 3 pupils. Team Energy is just one of three programmes which include Team Combat and Team Jam which are tailored for different age groups. The programmes use fast-paced music, dance, martial art techniques, circuits, relays, aerobics and team games to keep 5-16 year olds active and interested.

10 year research from the Department of Genomic Medicine at Imperial College London found three genetic variants that can go some way to explain the biological reasons for obesity:

The gene variant most strongly associated with childhood obesity and adult morbid obesity in the study is located near the PTER gene, the function of which is not known. This variant is estimated to account for up to a third of all childhood obesity, and a fifth of all cases of adult obesity.

The second variant associated with child and adult obesity is found in the NPC1 gene. Previous studies in mice have suggested that this gene has a role in controlling appetite, as mice with a non-functioning NPC1 gene suffer late-onset weight loss and have poor food intake. This gene variant accounts for around 10 per cent of all childhood obesity and about 14 per cent of adult morbid obesity cases.

The final variant is found near the MAF gene, which controls the production of the hormones insulin and glucagon, as well as chains of amino acids called glucagon-like peptides. These hormones and peptides are known to play key roles in people’s metabolisms by metabolising glucose and carbohydrates in the body. In addition, glucagon and glucagon-like peptides appear to have a strong effect on people’s ability to feel ‘full’ or satiated after eating. This variant accounts for about 6 per cent of early-onset obesity in children, and 16 per cent of adult morbid obesity.

Further research is needed to determine whether the gene variants are acting independently, but if they are, then together these three new variations may account for up to half of all cases of severe adult and child obesity.

I came across a couple of Yorkshire’s Post’s Letters to the Editor, questioning obesity “experts”and the role of government in providing solutions to community problems:

From: Richard Bedford, Ellis Court, Scalby Road, Scarborough.

I AM writing to say that I am fed up to the back teeth with reading dubious reports about obesity, particularly where children are concerned (Yorkshire Post, November 17).

I encounter many children in the course of my work and very few could be described as overweight. Indeed, I tend to see more who appear thin and under-nourished.

Instead of accepting at face value the “figures” put out by the Government, I would like to know precisely how their information was gathered, by whom it was collated and exactly how many children were involved.

The same applies to the “predictions” by “experts” regarding adult obesity. Names of “experts”, please, qualifications, salaries and details of whom these faceless ones are working for. Incidentally, as I understand it, maths is an exact science – you can’t have “about 1 in 5.” It either is 1 in 5 or it’s something else.

We seem to be sleepwalking into a control-freak led society, blithely absorbing the twaddle pushed at us by teams of manipulative number crunchers with hidden agendas. It should never be forgotten that we do not elect governments to regulate every aspect of our lives.

I believe that this problem facing us has arisen because so many people perceive that our present party political governmental system is now outdated, inadequate and pointless. The obsession with surveys, percentages and predictions therefore has a deeply sinister side. Government is desperate to divert attention from all its many failings and control means survival.

We must know far more about the countless unelected “policy institutes” which seek to shape life in this country. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi enticed one representative out of the woodwork (Yorkshire Post, November 17), but this can only be the tip of the iceberg.

We all should continually question things far more deeply and demand proper answers.

Accept nothing less and, above all, remember the ultimate irony – they who occupy the seat of power, who were elected to serve their country, most emphatically have no intention of ever doing so.

Relying on experts and policy institutes can bring on a false sense that since “something” is done, then it is OK. My view is that it is up to us to empower kids to make positive decisions on their health. We should be working and supporting parents to create a healthy environment if they choose to do so. It is and always will be about choice. Children and parents will need to make the choice themselves. No amount of government regulation and rules will substitute for that.

Gordon Brown jumps on the bandwagon:

Speaking on a visit to a school in south London, the prime minister said that although the government has invested £2.3bn in physical education over the last 10 years, more needs to be done.

Brown announced an extra £100m this year to try to broaden the range of sports available to children as a new survey revealed a worrying predicted rise in levels of obesity in the UK.

It suggested that 86 per cent of men will be obese in 15 years’ time, and 70 per cent of women will be obese in 20 years’ time.

The prime minister said more needed to be done on food labelling to help parents make the right decisions for their children.

“I want to see a young nation growing up that’s healthy and fit.

“Sometimes if you don’t deal with the problem quickly… then it just grows and grows and grows and gets worse,” he said.

On obesity the prime minister added: “It’s a huge problem and we’ve got to deal with it in a number of different ways.

“There are more school playing fields now. There is a wider range of sport in schools. Girls might be more interested in netball and yoga. It’s one of the answers to childhood obesity.

“When I was at school, one child in the class was very fat and it was a problem for them. Now there are four or five in the class and it’s a big problem for them.”

It will be interesting to track the long-term effects of these kinds of policy to ensure that it actually makes a difference to the rates of childhood obesity.