Your Childrens Health

Some research suggests that children with Downs Syndrome are as active as their peers, but use fewer calories. They have a lower basal metabolic rate, which burns calories for fuel when at rest or sleeping. Taking that one step further, it basically means they use fewer calories throughout the day to accomplish the same amount of activities as their normal peers.

There are three different ways to deal with this difference:

1. Increased activity

2. Limited calories

3. Or both limited calories and increased activity

Focusing on just calories is an option. Unless there are other medical reasons, it may be too risky to limit calorie intake for children less than eighteen years of age.

Focusing on positives and abilities has a far greater effect. Concentrating on physical activity has a lot of positives. There are a variety of physical activities to choose from. Some activities children can try are:

• Join a walking club

• Walk around the block for every hour you watch TV

• Swimming

• Walking, biking or hiking

• Organized sports

The hard part is choosing the activities. A child with downs syndrome has to make the choice to be involved. Sit down and make plans together! This makes it fun. Make a list of three small activities to add into the week. Start with activities that are 99 % achievable. Write them on a calendar. You can make a checklist. For every activity your child does give them praise! You can even give them a treat. For example healthy snacks or even a gold star to put beside each activity they accomplish. This will encourage them to keep up with theses activities. Healthy eating is also a key factor. You really want to watch your child’s daily calorie intake. Your doctor or nutritionist will have ideas to help with that.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 17th, 2006 at 6:12 am and is filed under Obesity, Diet and Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.