Good For Parents
1
- What is healthy?
- What is a healthy height?
- What can I do?
- Create your own healthy food
and activity guide
- Getting the Kids to be
more active > - Information and ideas to get
kids more active > - Reducing screen time >
- Getting kids to eat their fruit and veg >
- Ways to get kids to eat more
fruit and vegies > - More ideas on healthy eating >
- Parents Jury Pull the
plug campaign > - Eat it to Beat it! program >
Click here to Share Your Tips
What Parents Can Do
- Increase water and decrease
sweet drinks - At least one hour of activity
each day - No more than 2 hours of TV or computer time a day.
- Eat two serves of fruit and
5 serves of vegies each day - Reduce foods that are high in salt sugar and saturated fats
What’s Good for Kids?
STEP 1: Get active get out and play.
STEP 2: Drink H20. Think water first.
STEP 3: Eat two serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegies a day.
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Create your own healthy food and activity guide
Eating good food and staying active are things that are good for kids.
This link asks some questions about your child’s diet and activity levels and works out a Healthy Food and Activity Guide just for you.
Disclaimer:
Your doctor (GP), dietitian or other health worker can properly assess if your food and activity routine is right for you. This questionnaire is just one source of information about healthy eating and exercising. If you have more questions, please visit your doctor. The questionnaire also provides an opportunity for young people, parents and teachers to talk about food, physical activity and health. The results given in the Healthy Food and Activity Guide should always be discussed with a parent, teacher or adult.
Good For Parents
As parents we all want what’s best for our kids. Its hard these days to stay on top. We are busy balancing work and family. There are never enough hours in the day.
This site gives you simple guidelines on what you need to do to keep your kids active and healthy. It also gives you practical tips on how to do it and links to resources and organisations if you need more help.
What is healthy?
Being stick thin or able to run a marathon are not how we measure good health. It's about having a balance between healthy eating and regular physical activity in a way that works for you and your children.
The good news …
Being healthy is about much more than ‘looking good’. It also helps kids:
- Build strong bones
- Grow and develop healthily
- Improve their concentration at school
- Improve their coordination, balance and strength
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Be bright and active.
… and the bad news
Being unhealthy can lead in later life to:
- Type II diabetes
- High blood pressure and cholesterol levels
- Some types of cancers
- Heart disease
- Overweight and obesity
What is a healthy weight?
Not everyone is the same, but there are some basic guidelines for children’s weight. With nutritious meals and daily activity your child will usually find their ideal weight, rather than having to aim for a particular weight goal. But it does require some effort, as ‘puppy fat’ usually does not go away by itself, and may well be carried into adulthood.
We tend to use words like 'overweight' and 'obese' for anyone who's a bit on the chubby side. But these terms, along with 'underweight', have specific meanings that can be measured.
BMI-for-Age Charts are recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council for assessing children's weight. The charts determine a child's weight status by comparing the BMI (Body Mass Index), age and sex relative to population percentiles.
Click here to find out more about BMI for Age Charts
The Children and Body Weight Info Sheet(pdf 141kb) has good information about underweight and overweight children and body image, with useful tips on how to keep kids healthy (National Heart Foundation).
What can I do?
In short: feed your children well and get them doing daily activity. Easy to say, but not so easy to do. But if you start small and build it up, you can achieve amazing and long-lasting results.
- Remember that, like all children, an overweight child needs support, acceptance and encouragement
- Don't make them feel bad because of their weight – they're still the same person after all, no matter what their weight
- Focus on changing the whole family's activity levels, not just your child's
- Don't put your child on a diet, as they will still be growing and this may deprive them of essential nutrients. Instead, feed them and your family healthy food.
If you have any concerns about your child being overweight, contact your GP
Click here for some tips to assist in building positive eating and physical activity habits in your child.
See our healthy tips for activity and eating pages for more info:
- Getting kids more active
- Drink H2O. Think water first
- Fruit and Veg
- Healthy food