sports Archives - Happy Healthy Kids

How Flipping “Strength Switch” Makes Kids Happier, More Successful

September 13, 2017 by Kelley Leave a Comment

Spelling. Their left kicking foot. Forgetting their assignments at school. If I had a nickel for every time I talk to my kids about something they have to “work on,” I’d probably have enough money to fund a private tutor for just about every school subject and extracurricular endeavor I fret they’re struggling with. But a compelling new read by an internationally renowned child psychologist has convinced me that such an investment would be a huge mistake. Professor Lea Waters, Ph.D, who leads positive psychology programs at the University of Melbourne and University of Michigan, says that by resisting to impulse to help our kids with their weaknesses and instead give them opportunities to do more of what they’re naturally good at, kids—and us!—will be better able to thrive.

Discussing her new book The Strength Switch with The Guardian newspaper, Dr. Waters explains the evolutionary reason why we parents, and often our children themselves, seem to focus our time and energy on patching up shortcomings. “We have evolved with a ‘negativity bias,’ zeroing in on what’s wrong as a way to protect ourselves and our tribe,” she says. “Add to this the constant social pressure to raise perfectly behaved, accomplished kids, and many parents feel as if they have to be in “fix-it” mode all the time.”

But being a slow runner, say, no longer portends eminent demise; even being a sloppy speller won’t sink you. In our modern, diverse society, there are fewer personal skills that are absolutely “essential,” and a wider range of traits that can be considered assets. Moreover, Waters’ research in the International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology and other peer reviewed publications has shown that parents who were trained to regularly recognize and point out their kids’ strengths allowed them to identify programs—from after school activities to at-home chores—that made the children happier and more successful all-around. Waters calls it “flipping the strength switch”: shifting from talking mostly about what kids need to improve on to what they have the best chance, with continued hard work, to excel in.

So, what are some practical ways to make this shift? It can be hard, especially when there are some things kids have to do that they might struggle with, from certain required school subjects to universally acknowledged life skills, like swimming or keeping their belongings organized. When it comes to tricky schoolwork, Dr. Waters counsels parents to suggest that kids think about how their strengths can help them with the things they struggle with. Let’s say they have trouble grasping, say, long division; you can explore how another strong trait—say, neat handwriting—can help make the process easier. If they struggle with public speaking, you might point out how they might call on their funny sense of humor to ease them through a scary moment.

“Picture a light switch inside your head,” she explained to The Guardian. “When the light is on you look for the strengths in your child. When it is off, your negativity bias is operating. The brain is a pattern detecting organ, so the more you flick the switch, the more you train your brain to look for positive patterns and so over-ride the negativity bias.”

This can work with discipline, too. Dr. Waters uses an example of how her son kept forgetting to put his new bike away, and it was driving everyone crazy. She started commented regularly on how Nick had used his good organizational skills to put his other belongings away after school. Feeling pride about this skill, her son began to see how his carelessness with his bike didn’t jibe with that strong sense of identity, and the bike wound up where it belonged from then on.

What do you think—have you noticed that your kids step up when they’re boosted up? Are you brave enough to not worry about something they’re just plain lousy at? It’s definitely something I need to, ahem, work on.

Photo credit: Aikawake via Flickr

4 Kids’ Sports Gear Mistakes Parents Make

April 28, 2017 by Kelley 1 Comment

Anyone who has a child in youth sports knows that athletics are way more intense than they were when we were kids. Even second- and third-grade town teams meet 3, 4, even 5 times a week, and now just about every sport is “year-round” if you want it to be (we know club organizations do, of course). And as our kids’ athletic commitments have grown, our sports gear budget seems to have ballooned along with it.

After an early spring in which my middle son developed a limp from ill-fitting sneakers, and a recent, stressful hour trying to parse the difference between baseball and lacrosse cleats at a local sporting goods warehouse staffed by one employee per every 5,000 square feet, I decided I could use some global insight. Jessica Kane, outreach coordinator for Steel Locker Sports in Austin, Texas, shared her observations about three things we ’80s kids—who just maybe wore jellies to little league softball practice—seem to be doing wrong when shopping and caring for the seemingly endless gear needed by 21st century young athletes.

Buying Too Big
This is maybe the most common misconception among parents, says Kane. Kids grow up quickly, and you might want to buy bigger shoes and clothes thinking they’ll grow into them. For shoes, you should buy the size that fits them comfortably now—ideally, according to podiatry experts, at the end of the day, when the foot has been working hard and might be a bit swollen, just as it is after running. Just as you probably know that too-small shoes can create pain and problems, too-big ones can, too: because the foot will slide around the shoe, blisters and muscle and tendon pain can result. The same rule should apply to uniform and clothing: comfortable and safe movement depends on it. Buy a proper fitting size for them and when the time comes, you can buy them a bigger uniform.

Wrong Shoes
Brand new shoes are the staple of a new school year and sports season. But many parents make the mistake of buying flash over substance, says Kane. When it comes to court sports or running, don’t buy street shoes instead of proper sports shoes: this is associated with common foot abnormalities like athlete’s foot or flat feet. Not all field sports require cleats, but it is important to do a bit of research on the types of cleats for specific sports. From a safety standpoint, soccer cleats are fairly versatile for all sports, but your child shouldn’t wear a shoe with a prominent toe cleat (often on baseball and lacrosse shoes) for soccer, which can be dangerous when kicking (and some refs might forbid). As your child ages and performance matters, you might want to invest in specialized cleats: the design in football, lacrosse, baseball, and soccer cleats are slightly different and can enhance lateral movement and other skills.

Not Washing Enough
We all—especially those of us with hockey players—know there’s a special eau de kid that only gets worse when our young athletes hit puberty. But the offense letting gear languish in bags or cubbies after a game or practice (or three) goes beyond locker room nose assault. Parents often let their kids wear their sports gear a second or third time if there is no visible grime, says Kane, but bacteria proliferates from sweat and even a little dirt which can cause rashes, acne, and other skin troubles. Other grubby little athletes will most certainly come in close contact with yours during the sport, adding their sweat and germs too, increasing your child’s risk of rashes and infections. After a game, make sure your children change out of their sweaty clothes and into fresh ones; and get those jerseys and pads—basically anything that’s not plastic—into the washing machine.

Spending Too Much
Sort of a surprise coming from a representative from a sports gear company, right? Kane recommends that before you commit to buying really expensive shoes and gear for your kids, remember that it will face a lot of wear and tear, sometimes for just a six-month stretch. A high price tag doesn’t always translate to great product performance—it often corresponds more with what brand-name is hot at the moment—so don’t be afraid to buy gear at a lower cost if the quality seems comparable. A good sales manager should be able to point you in the direction of less expensive brands that perform just as well as the pricey ones.

Top photo: Our “sports closet” at home. And this is just the half of it.

Why Active is More Important than Thin

April 1, 2016 by Kelley 1 Comment

From magazine covers to reality TV to body-negative chatter on the Internet, we’re surrounded my messages that it’s good—paramount, perhaps—to look fit. But someone can look physically healthy and not be—even in childhood, as important new research shows.

In a study led by Mount Sinai Hospital researchers in New York City and funded by the U.S. Department of Health, 1.5 million teens were given physical fitness assessments, and then tracked as adults—up to age 62. Turns out that young people with poor aerobic fitness and low muscle strength had triple the risk of diabetes later in life, regardless of their body mass index (BMI). Kids who were active, but heavier, were still protected against diabetes—likely due, researchers say, to the way that physical activity helps regulate the hormone insulin. Insulin sensitivity is the main factor in the development of diabetes. In 2012, 29.1 million Americans, or 9.3% of the population, had diabetes—a number that’s rising at an “alarming” pace, according to CDC officials.

These findings bring home two important messages that are crucial to pass on to our kids. One, that “thin”—no matter how good it looks poolside or on the cover of US Weekly—can still be unhealthy. And, two: that being active might be the most important thing you can do for your health.

We’ve shared lots of ideas for keeping kids moving on this site, including teaching them silly, old-school neighborhood games, giving them access to great outdoor toys, and playing fun games en famile, from the driveway to the beach. For older kids, organized sports are obviously a terrific way to combine physical activity with a social outlet. But as we’ve noted before, kids who aren’t into the team thing can get the same physical and emotional benefits by participating in lower-stakes recreational games and less mainstream physical activities, like yoga or a running club.

The key: Teaching kids from very early on that physical activity is not only fun but helps you feel good—and most important, modeling that message ourselves. If you’re inclined to stick the scale in a back closet—and perhaps pull out the jump rope or hand weights you stashed in there sometime during the Bush administration—we’d be supportive of that too.

Photo credit: “Hooray for Summer!” via Photo Pin, cc

50 Parenting Truths They Left Out of the Books

June 22, 2015 by Kelley Leave a Comment

My oldest son recently celebrated his 9^th birthday, which means—unthinkably—I’m in my final lap of my first decade of parenting. Because the start of summer has gotten me in a list-y sort of mood, I’ve spent the last couple weeks chipping away at a collection of random truths—my truths, at least—that seem to be missing from the parenting books I’ve amassed since my first pregnancy.

Aside from being a surprisingly cathartic exercise now, I thought it would interesting to be able to look back at this list after another decade has passed. What did I get right? Where was I clueless? What would I add once I was the parent of three big teenage boys (gulp) on the verge of adulthood?

Until then, I’m hoping you’ll share feedback and your own truths in comments or posts, and keep the list growing and growing.

1. Don’t, under any circumstances, try to pull down a dirty Pull-Up or swim diaper. Rip from the sides.

2. The terrible twos have nothing on the terrible threes. With another year, comes a greater sense of power.

3. Anything you let slide three times will become expected. That goes for them sleeping in your bed, skipping bath, eating a second dessert, and many, many other things.

4. The best way to clean a child’s nose is by sneak attack.

5. Trash and queasiness are inevitabilities in the family car. Always keep some plastic grocery bags in the glove compartment.

6. The ease with which your child learns to swim, ride a bike, and try a new food is far more dependent on their own internal voice than anything you can do or say.

7. Buy more milk, eggs, paper towels, socks, and sports water bottles than you think you’ll need.

8. Take the hand-me-downs.

9. Make a good babysitter happy.

10. An afternoon at the movies is fun, but with young children, a good video and popcorn is usually just as enjoyable for them and preferable in about a dozen ways for you.

11. Take 10 minutes to let kids run around a park, yard, or your apartment lobby before a road trip or restaurant meal.

12. Make sure your children get to bed on time the week before a vacation.

13. Three seasons of the year and for a good part of the fourth, top sheets on children’s beds are an unnecessary headache.

14. If you’re going to overspend on one thing your child’s going to wear, make it sneakers.

15. If your baby accepts a challenging food, keep giving it to him or her at least once a week. Otherwise, when you present it again in toddlerhood, he or she is likely to reject it.

16. If you want to get your child’s attention, sit in one place nearby for a few minutes, saying nothing.

17. Always pack water on car trips over 20 minutes.

18. If you go to the playground before 10 o’clock in the morning, bring an old towel to wipe down the slide.

19. It’s almost never something they ate, but a bug they’ve caught.

20. Kids will tire of even their favorite new toys within a couple months. Rotate boxes of 10 or so toys in and out of a hiding place.

21. Teach children to throw away wrappers and tissues in toddlerhood, otherwise you’ve got an uphill battle on your hands later.

22. An roll of kraft or butcher’s paper costs very little, lasts forever, and serves as an endless drawing surface, mess-free painting surface, tablecloth, or drop cloth.

23. Your child will have discussed with his or her friends certain (and almost always incorrect) aspects of the birds and bees long before you’ve had “the talk” with them.

24. Yell your point, and your child will focus on the yelling and miss the point.

25. They are still wiping wrong. Revisit lessons on technique regularly.

26. Learning to read and potty train are both longer processes than you think they will or should be.

27. When someone is unkind to your children, take heart: it will almost certainly hurt you more than it hurts them.

28. Your child’s general disposition at 4 months is very similar to what it will be at 4 years.

29. Nothing good comes from telling your child more than a couple minutes in advance that he or she is getting a shot at the doctor’s office.

30. It will be hard to believe that you will love a new child the way you love the one you already have, but you will.

31. Giving children the cold shoulder when you are angry will only confuse them.

32. After 30-60 minutes, the amount of screen time a child enjoys will be likely be inversely proportional to their good mood.

33. Telling your child about a mistake you’ve made can lead to a powerful connection between you.

34. Whether it’s reading, skating, sports, or a board game, a child will never really enjoy a pastime until he or she becomes basically capable at it. Expect the early days to be rough-going.

35. Set parental controls on the television and computer before you think you need to.

36. It’s tempting to skirt proper tuck-ins for older children, especially if they have younger siblings. Don’t.

37. It’s so much easier to clean up their room and toys for them, but that doesn’t mean you should.

38. You and the teacher are on the same team. Be absolutely candid with them about what your child is all about.

39. That perfect family? They have more worries and problems than you can imagine.

40. One of your child’s favorite foods will be his or her sibling’s least favorite foods, and vice versa. Don’t cut any of them out for this reason.

41. Once a child is potty trained, it will be infinitely easier to keep small stools in all bathrooms in the home for several years so children can go to the bathroom and wash their hands independently. Just buy a few.

42. The well-being of your oldest child will always be the barometer for how you think you’re doing as a parent.

43. Keep it light with kids, whenever possible.

44. Your neighbors know and care less about your family dynamics than you think they do.

45. If you find yourself starting to tell your child something for the third time in a row, start over, with eye contact.

46. When teachers recommend practicing the play lines at home, do it.

47. Offering a fellow parent a genuine compliment about his or her child can make that person’s day.

48. Your child’s “thing”—bugs, chess, rhythmic gymnastics—will likely change in two years.

49. Average can be—by definition—okay.

50. More hugs, fewer words.

What are some of your own parenting truths?

Kids and Strength Training: A Good Idea?

February 10, 2015 by Kelley Leave a Comment

Our town recreation department recently started offering Crossfit classes—for kids. That was a surprise: I’ve always associated Crossfit—the high-impact, strength-boosting exercise movement that’s swept the nation—with hardcore (and hard-bodied) adults. The idea of kids doing burpees—and not the kind for laughs at the lunch table—seemed a little…much?

At the same time, I knew that strong muscles can help protect against many sports-related injuries. Also, gym-related fitness is a great alternative for kids who aren’t drawn to traditional competitive sports. The question: what can kids who are interested in getting stronger do that can help—and not hurt—growing bodies? So I checked into the research, spoke with my husband (a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who specializes in sports medicine) and consulted with physical education expert Curt Hinson, Ph.D., a Happy Healthy Kids advisory board member. Here are some takeaways:

1. Strength training can be really good for children and teens… Studies have demonstrated that well-supervised programs, especially ones performed twice a week for at least 8 weeks, can safely and measurably increase kids’ strength, and may also help decrease the risk of certain injuries. This is important to note as youth sport competitions continue to grow more intense and competitive, leading to the type of injuries—like A.C.L. tears—that used to only plague adults.

2. …But it’s imperative that kids do the right kind of strength training. The safest and best type of weight training regimen for kids should involve light weights, and high repetitions. Make sure kids are not doing any type of explosive, powerlifting moves, whether with weights or medicine balls or kettle bells or (as might be the case in our house) unwilling younger siblings. Lifting super-heavy objects can throw a skeletally immature child off balance, and overstress their joints.

Even better for kids are resistance-based moves that don’t involve any weights. So, certain Crossfit staples, like squats, mountain climbers, and, yes, burpees can be safe and beneficial for kids, if done with controlled, supervised movements. Most strength training injuries occur on home equipment, with unsafe behavior and in unsupervised settings. Make sure you or another trusted adult is monitoring your child when he or she is working out.

3. Hold off on encouraging your child to try any strength-training program until they are 8 years old. Because it’s around this time that children achieve adult-level balancing skills, which are needed to do strength-training moves safely and effectively, experts recommend parents hold off on letting their children embark on any muscle-building programs until this age.

4. Make sure you put the benefits of strength training in perspective for kids. Remind kids that muscle isn’t the magic bullet to sports success (or popularity or attractiveness, for that matter.) It’s important that kids know the risks of pushing their bodies too hard, as well as the dangers of supplements and pills that purport to make them bigger or more “cut.”

5. Check out the IronKids app if your child shows interest in getting stronger. The AAP has created a great, $3.99 app called IronKids, which features lots of safety tips as well as a 45-minute, kid-friendly “IronStrength” workout. Do it together with your kids—it’s a great way for you to keep tabs on their progress and fit a workout in at the same time.

What if Your Kid Hates Sports?

January 7, 2015 by Kelley 7 Comments

More kids than ever—a whopping 21.5 million, according a recent analysis by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association —play organized sports. Indeed, for better or occasionally worse, there seems to be a team for everyone, every season of the year. But what if you’re the parent of a child who doesn’t want to play on a team at all? For whom an hour at the dentist may be preferable to strapping on the shin pads and chasing after a soccer ball?

In our sports-crazed culture, parenting a child who claims to “hate sports” can be tricky. I’ve spoken with parents who worry that children who beg off little league tryouts or who shuffle around a basketball court in apparent misery are missing out on some important childhood rite—or at the very least, an opportunity to bond with peers in some meaningful way. These feelings are natural, particularly if you have a little youth league nostalgia yourself. Plus, there’s data suggesting that sports participation can help boost self-esteem, fitness, social confidence, and even academic achievement.

Other than putting a child’s lack of athletic interest in perspective—we are, after all, talking about games here—parents can do many things to support sports-averse kids at multiple ages and stages. In fact, many kids may get the physical, social, and emotional benefits of mainstream sports and more by participating in lower-stakes recreational games or less mainstream physical activities. With special thanks to HHK adviser Curt Hinson, Ph.D., a kinesiologist and dad who counsels schools around the country about improving gym and recess programs, we’re listed two big ideas here.

At the early childhood level…Don’t push programming.

It’s not hard to get sucked into the tot-team industrial complex cropping up in many communities (guilty here). It sometimes seems that everyone’s signing their preschoolers and kindergarteners up for soccer, tee ball, and the like. Sure, exposing a child to a variety of sports early on may be just thing to help him narrow down what he likes and doesn’t like. But if your little one starts balking every time you lace up those teeny-tiny cleats, it may be time to throw in the towel, at least temporarily. “The most common reasons a child ‘hates sports’ are that they had a bad experience or lack the skill to participate at a level that makes them feel successful,” says Dr. Hinson. Some tot-level organized sports—ones in which coaches attempt to teach skills that are above many participants’ fledgling physical capacities—can set the stage for both these problems. “If a child starts playing at an early age and he or she lacks the strength or coordination to participate at a successful level, they often become frustrated or bored, which, in a child’s mind, can equate to ‘hating sports,'” says Dr. Hinson.

If this is your kid, says Dr. Hinson, the best remedy is for parents not to force their children to play in an organized league, especially skill-based team sports like soccer, baseball, football, basketball or ice hockey. “It’s better in this scenario to spend the early years just playing with your child in the backyard or in an open gym space,” he says. “Often, throwing, catching and kicking skills can be developed quicker with you than at a team practice. Some team practices have kids standing around waiting in line more than they are engaged in skill development.” This way, you can gauge a young child’s interest without the pressures or costs of a team experience. Invite some friends or neighbors over every so often if the social aspect is of interest to you or your child. This may be extra work for you, but chances are the extra family time and lower pressure environment will benefit everyone.

At the elementary- and middle-school level…Sign up for alternative sports.

When your older child ‘hates sports,’ it may just be that he just hates the sports he’s been exposed to up until this point. While the saying that “there’s an athlete inside all of us,” may sound a little commercial or corny, it’s true that there’s some appealing physical activity out there for almost every child—and now more than ever. Some of those ballooning sports participation stats have to do with the fact that more and more kids are getting involved with physical activities that weren’t available to us as kids.

Talking to your friends, your child’s P.E. teachers, and, of course, local Google searches will help generate ideas. In our town outside of Boston, for instance, there are a few indoor rock climbing facilities that hold kids’ classes, and many kids’ skiing programs. Dr. Hinson has found that dance programs and gymnastics in particular appeal to many kids who are disinclined toward team sports. There’s also a growing number of fitness gyms that have launched kids’ programming, from yoga to Crossfit. More and more towns are holding running programs and races that begin at the school-age level, and there are even kids triathlons held in many communities (look for one near you at trifind.com).

Whether or not your child finds a friend who’s game to try out one of these alternative sports with her, consider joining her yourself. You may both get more fit—have you ever tried to keep up with a motivated 11-year-old?—and also find that the best bonding you do is on a running trail or chairlift. And that’s a win-win.

Photo credit: Biscarotte via Photo Pin, cc

When the Sports Season Never Ends

December 9, 2014 by Kelley Leave a Comment

The other day, in the precious two-hour gap between dropping my youngest off at his toddler program and picking him back up, there were any number of things I could have done (and had to do): pay bills, clean out the garage, work on an article, figure out what the orange stain on the mudroom floor could possibly be. Instead, I made a spreadsheet: of my kids’ youth sports commitments. The athletic options for 8- and 6-year-old boys are so many, and so frequent, I had to summon the powers of Excel to figure out which sports they could do, and when, without all of us going crazy. Or broke.

There are no more seasons anymore, really, in youth sports. In communities like ours, children as young as 4 or 5 can play pretty much anything they want, year-round, for town teams or “club” teams. And that’s a shame.

How can too much choice be a bad thing? Naturally, kids like mine who enjoy sports are all for, say, indoor baseball in November or the $1000 summer lacrosse “club” team, especially if their friends are doing it. But many parents grumble that town leagues are being diluted as for-profit club teams and developmental clinics pull the best of the best from the local teams. Others worry that if year-round or “elite”-level teams are available, their kids need to join ranks in order to have a shot at making increasingly competitive middle or high-school teams. Doctors like my orthopedic surgeon husband are concerned that young kids who specialize in certain high-level athletics week-after-week, month-after-month are at risk for overuse conditions and other sports injuries that used to only afflict adult athletes.

Those are all big problems, but when I watch my six-year-old practicing pop-ups in an indoor baseball “facility” while it’s snowing outside, what I think about most is burnout. I played a handful of sports as a kid, and I remember the excitement of dusting off my field hockey stick at the start of the school year, or my mitt when the snow started to melt. There was a sport for every season, at least until the high school years, and I welcomed the change. Just as snowfall seems more magical in December than March, so does a freshly Zamboni’d ice rink. This is what former NBA player Bob Bigelow talked about most in his book, Just Let the Kids Play. For kids whose parents afford them every opportunity to play any sport they want, at the highest levels attainable through the magic of money and Minivan chauffeurs, Bigelow feels only pity. “They’ve had their childhood robbed of them so their parents can create another athletic Frankenstein,” he told ESPN The Magazine earlier this year. While I was a writer for Sports Illustrated a decade ago, I wrote about many of these kids, and was often glowing—the talent that some precocious athletes exhibit today is, after all, nothing short of awesome—but at other times, skeptical.

What Bigelow and many other youth sport advocates want is not less sports, per se, but a greater variety of lower-stakes sports, especially at the young ages. This is a model we are embracing with our kids, but because you can sample from so many different kinds of sports all year, even this can create Frankensteins of a different sort: After a day of shepherding two children between four different athletic events, I’m left feeling a little monstrous myself. “More sports,” even town-based, low-pressure ones, can eat up family time, to the point that many of my friends feel that weekends are more stressful, scattered, and draining than weekdays. It takes real restraint to say “no” to an activity that the other kids in the class are doing—and military-grade logistical plotting to coordinate schedules so friends or siblings can participate in a sport together, on the same team. (And with tryouts becoming common in many sports starting in kindergarten, there’s no telling if your child will be able to play alongside his best buddy anyway.)

As for now, our general rules are that we: allow our kids to play no more than two sports per season at most; stand firm that our kids will every so often miss a game or practice in favor of important family events (or the occasional birthday party, because, c’mon, they are in first and third grade); and remind our kids over and over again that sportsmanship, effort, teamwork, and fun are more important than whether you are on the A1a team or A1b team. We’re still feeling our way through this, however, and realize the rules may change—particularly since our 3-year-old will no doubt try some things his brothers do, which means that the family sports machine, as taxed as it currently seems, is actually only running at about 66% capacity. Feedback is welcome from readers who’ve gone or are going through the same thing and have found a way to help their kids balance a healthy interest in sports with good mental and physical health generally. In the meantime, I have to go down to the basement to tell my older boys to stop playing “keep it up” with a day-old balloon so they can come up for breakfast. But it’s so hard; it sounds like they’re having the most fun they’ve had all week, and it has cost nothing.

photo credit: Simon Sees via Photo Pin, cc

Make-Your-Own Trail Mix

September 7, 2014 by Kelley Leave a Comment

A lot of us came of age in the carbophile era: Indoctrinated by the idea that fat was the enemy, we stuffed our faces with rice cakes, plain bagels, and low-fat cookies, and sluggishly made our way from the dining hall to class, wondering why we felt so tired and bloated all the time. Snackwells? Perhaps never in human history have we collectively snacked so poorly.

Over the past decade, there’s been mounting research suggesting that fat is, in fact, our friend, and what we really should be avoiding are these so-called “simple carbs”: quickly digested starches and sugars, often found in pasta, rice, potatoes, and processed snacks. These foods can cause our blood sugar to spike and our energy, not long after, to plummet. If you’ve read or seen the news last week, you’ve probably come across the latest study showing that a diet that’s low in simple carbs is better than one that’s low in fat when it comes to weight control, heart function, and other health markers.

Now, this presents a real snacking conundrum. With things like olive oil, lean meats, eggs, and dairy, it’s fairly easy to work some more healthy fats into mealtime. But if you’re like us, your pantry is stuffed with questionable pouches of shelf-stable carbs: pretzels, chips, puffs, graham crackers, fish crackers, bunny crackers, and some round, unidentifiable crackers I’m quite sure no one has touched since I purchased them in July. These white, tan, and orange snacking staples have been in regular rotation since we gleefully presented our first child with finger foods, and it’s hard to break the habit. Kids like salty, filling, quick-to-digest snacks, and to be honest, I do too—they require no preparation, are easily transportable, and placate a growling belly quickly.

So, I’ve been thinking about ways to satisfy that crunchy-snack craving with some more healthy fats and protein, and landed upon one potentially satisfying solution, particularly for high-activity days when their bodies require a little extra energy: trail mix. But I didn’t present it to my kids in those exact terms. For many of us, “trail mix” conjures up visions of the dusty raisins and shriveled almonds wasting away in vending machines and airports. I rounded up and, in some, cases, purchased a variety of fresh nuts I know they liked, as well as dried fruit, semi-sweet chocolate chips, plain popcorn, and low-sugar cereals. In the spirit of the sundae bar, I lined up the ingredients in little bowls on the kitchen table, handed them some Ziploc bags, and let them go to town. I even sprung for a few airtight acrylic canisters and wrote my kids’ respective initials on my fave chalkboard labels so each child had their own special mix to draw from at snack time.

The possible combos are almost endless. A trip to Whole Foods or Trader Joes will give you a dozen ideas, many nut-free, as may be required in your family. Here are some potentially kid-friendly inclusions:

Nuts (peanuts, macadamia nuts and Marcona almonds tend to go over big in our house)

Seeds (sesame, pumpkin)

Dried fruit (golden raisins, dried cherries, dried cranberries, dried apricots)

Coconut chips (we like the Dang brand; and dang, they are addictive)

Sweet chips (to sprinkle in judiciously: semi-sweet chocolate chips, yogurt chips, peanut butter chips, M&Ms)

Low-sugar cereal (Cheerios, Kashi Go Lean crunch)

Plain popcorn (it’s a whole grain, you know)

Bringing your child to the store to help you pick out ingredients can be part of the fun. My sister recently took her daughter shopping for trail mix ingredients in anticipation of a weekend soccer tournament. They came up with the sweet-and-salty combo below, and made individual bags for all of my niece’s teammates. Now, for a rainy Sunday on the couch, a calorie-dense mix like this might not be the best choice. But for a busy day of sports and other activities, it’s hard to beat.

Sophie's Soccer Mix

Ingredients

1 cup peanuts
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup low-sugar granola clusters
1/2 cup M&Ms

Instructions

Mix ingredients in a large bowl to help distribute salt from peanuts. Makes about six servings.

https://www.happyhealthykids.com/trail-mix-kids/

Coaching Your Kid’s Sports Team

September 4, 2014 by Kelley 1 Comment

If your child plays a sport, you or your spouse has probably coached, or at least considered coaching, his or her team. More than 85 percent of youth league coaches are moms or dads of players—because town coffers don’t typically support coaching salaries, but also because it seems, to a lot of us, like a really nice thing: time with your kid, doing something fun, active, and common-goal-oriented.

photo credit: D.Clow – Maryland via photopin cc

If only it were that simple. Coaching your own child has many obvious rewards, but some real challenges, too. Separating yourself from your everyday parent role to treat your child like “any other player” is easier said than done, and kids can sniff out the struggle. While the common assumption is that a parent coach may favor his child, interviews of youth soccer players by researchers at the University of Virginia and elsewhere reveal that kids of coaching parents often feel pressure and higher expectations, and a sense of being subject to a disproportionate amount of criticism. And no one likes being picked on by a coach, particularly one you have to sit down to dinner with later that evening.

Obviously, becoming your child’s youth team coach requires more than a basic knowledge about the sport. It necessitates some introspection to understand your own motivations to become a coach, as well as your child’s—and his teammates’—personality and learning style. For advice on this sticky topic, I turned to my friend Sara Whalen Hess, Psy.D., who’s also a World-Cup-gold-medal-winning former professional soccer player, and now a licensed clinical psychologist and mom of three. (Check out her practice’s website, here.) Dr. Hess started coaching her oldest son’s youth league soccer team when he was 4, and has continued to coach his team every year (he’s now 8). As a former elite athlete, practicing psychologist, and parent, she’s uniquely qualified to provide some advice for making a parent coaching experience a positive one. Here are some of her take-to-the-field tips.

1. Fight the urge to coach and instruct your own child all game long. The only way for a child to learn to play is through trying and failing—that’s a natural process for any athlete, says Dr. Hess: “Kids are so desperate to please their parents in general, but it’s important that children don’t feel like they need to impress us. My goal with my son was that he had fun, because if he’s having fun, he will want to work hard, and that’s how he will get better. As corny as that sounds, it’s absolutely true.”

2. If your child or his teammate is struggling, focus on the positive. Kids respond really well when they think you think they can be successful, Dr. Hess says. One of her favorite pieces of advice for parent clients in her practice—“catch your child being good”—works nicely for coaching, too. Be on the watch for a genuinely savvy move or team-building behavior from a lesser star, and give her effusive props for it when it occurs. “Kids who are a bit slower to catch on need more positive reinforcement to be motivated,” she notes.

3. Don’t neglect a successful player (yours or another’s). It’s tempting to leave a good player to his own devices while you tend to the child who’s studying the clover in right field. But your job as coach is to help your child and all of his teammates grow, regardless of where they fall on the skill chart. “Sometimes I will tell my son to use his left foot more, or try a certain, difficult skill during a game,” Dr. Hess says. “There’s a challenge out there for everyone, but it might not be the same for everybody.”

4. Early on, pay attention to the way different kids respond to different motivational techniques. Style doesn’t need to change based on skill level—however, it may need to change based on personality, Dr. Hess says. “There are always kids who need more direct feedback, and some who need a softer approach. I always get to know my players really well, so I can identify with them and know what they need to have fun and work hard.”

5. After the game, put your parenting hat back on. Postgame talks can be tricky for everyone, Dr. Hess notes, but particularly if you’ve played a role in your child’s win or loss. Try not to brood about your own coaching performance, or your child’s play that day. If the game was a tough one, focus on dialogue more than commentary. “Rule of thumb when you don’t know what to say to a kid: Find out what they’re thinking,” says Dr. Hess. “Ask them how they feel, if they had fun, what were the best or most difficult parts. And based on the research of (Stanford psychologist) Carol Dweck, always put the focus on effort and work put in, rather than stats. We need kids—ours and others—to relate their success to their hard work, so they aren’t afraid of failing.”

Preseason Sports Reminder: Drink Up

August 17, 2014 by Kelley Leave a Comment

It’s around this time of summer that kids not only get back to school, but back to sports practice. For older children and teens, especially, preseason can be serious stuff: A time to prove their worth to coaches and teammates after time away. Unfortunately, this annual ritual of excitement, adrenaline and stiff competition takes place amid sweltering temperatures countrywide. It’s a pressure-cooker combo that can set the stage for dehydration, which has played a role in serious sports-related health scares, and even deaths, in recent years.

Photo by: Capt Kodak via photopin cc

HHK advisory board members and moms Julie Kardos, M.D. and Naline Lai, M.D. have written extensively on the subject in their blog Two Peds in a Pod. They advise parents to think beyond just sending kids to practice with a loaded, easy-to-sip-from water bottle (which is of course important too). Kids should not only drink every 20 minutes during a sports activity, but sip from a water bottle throughout the day and up to an hour prior to it. Afterwards, the more competitive players who churn up a sweat should turn to electrolyte replenishers such as Gatorade and Powerade. Though the citric acids in these sports drinks can put kids at higher risk for cavities when swigged regularly, they can be extremely helpful when kids endure 20-30 minutes of sweating, which causes the body can lose more salt and sugar than is healthy.

Even more important is to equip your kids with knowledge about what dehydration feels like. “Because thirst does not always correlate with dehydration, children often misjudge their own hydration status,” says Dr. Lai. “Headache and nausea are some of the first symptoms kids should be aware of.” Arm them, too, with the good sense to ask a coach for a water break if they’re feeling lightheaded or “just not right,” says Dr. Lai. With proper hydration, they’ll come back even stronger in the next drill.