If new research is anything to go by, then yes.

Its sad that one in four children is overweight or obese, but even sader is that fact that this number is increasing by about 40,000 children a year. This latest research is posing the question, does having a fat child mean your a bad parent.

To be honest, thats a question that i dont think im brave enough to answer. Not having children of my own i honestly have no-idea how hard it is to raise a child or ensure that they get the proper amount of nutrients to help them grow big and strong. However, i do believe im qualified to provide struggling parents with enough information to help get their children active.

Active children develop essential growth and developments skills such as fine motor skills and gross motor skills (which covers every type of developmental progress from reading and writing to walking and talking). These skills continue to grow and develop well into early adulthood. Research now tells us that if children don’t exercise and develop these essential skills early in life, there is a greater risk of problems later in life, including impaired learning, obesity and numerous social and emotional disorders.

While its important to exericse with your kids its even more important to remember that they arnt mini-adults. They’re growing. Inappropriate training and exercise can damage growth cartilage and have serious consequences. Kids don’t need to use a lot of fancy equipment. But they do need to be kept entertained so that they enjoy their exercise and want to continue.

If your child is simply un-motivated and just wants to sit on the couch with their games console, you need to think out side of the box. Dont expect them to sudenly want to go and play football or run 5kms with you. Instead try a simple but effective tactic. Find out what your kids favourite game is and find ways to incorporate that into their physical activity. If they enjoy playing Wii Tennis, try real tennis, bowling or even something as simple as Mario Cart, try getting them to help you build a push go cart and practice on it together.

These exericses dont have to be hard, but they will be effective. remember to start small and dont get frustrated when your child doesnt have the same intesrets as you. Find out what they enjoy and be creative enough to incorate that into exericse ideas.

If it all seems to hard, speak to a professional or contact me via my website and ill pass on a few extra ideas.

Good Luck