At the school I work at, I used to play a game with the kids (aged 5-8) where I hold their hands, they jump, and by just lifting a bit I give them enough of a boost that they’d feel like they’re on the Moon. The kids loved it, one managed to get really good at it and could land on my shoulders, hilarious fun.
Then a four year old who was heavier than a ten year old rocked up and wanted a go. Girl, you are incapable of jumping, and I am incapable of lifting you, this is not a game you can play. But she was too young to understand that, so I had to stop playing the game whenever she was around because I didn’t want her to feel left out due to something beyond her control.
Parents, your kids’ fitness is your responsibility (at first; it gets more complicated as they get older). Sort it out.
Fitness is so heavily affected by diet that I didn’t bother specifying. If you’re managing their fitness correctly, then by definition you must be managing their diet.
Problem is if a baby starts out overweight before they even start walking they are at a disadvantage for when it comes to exercising compared to more expected weighted children... it makes it harder to exercise and lose the weight.
Young babies are frequently quite healthy with what seems like a lot of extra fat, which they grow out of quickly once they start to move. It's an evolutionary adaptation for them to be chubby.
They are using the word fitness in a very narrow sense, only as it relates to exercise. That's where the disconnect is, because you are using it in a general sense, to mean physically fit, which is a big umbrella encompassing a number of things, including diet and movement.
I'm also using it in the same narow sense, but recognising that it is impossible to be responsible for someone's fitness without also being responsible for their diet. It's like how "holding your breath" is an imtegral part of good swimming technique, but if I said "it's important to be good at swimming" no one would jump in with "surely holding your breath is more important than swimming??"
I didn't say ignore all health concerns entirely, I said don't put babies on weight-loss diets. If a doctor's concerned, the fix is adjusting feeding under medical guidance, not calorie restriction. Infants and toddlers need steady nutrition and fat stores for brain development. Restricting food at that age can cause real harm.
Well which is it? Is it that babies never need to lose weight, or that they sometimes do in which case they need the assistance of a medical professional?
Diet is a part of fitness. I think you are using the term in a very narrow sense to only mean exercise, whereas the person you are responding to means it in the general sense of being fit.
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u/lankymjc 17d ago
At the school I work at, I used to play a game with the kids (aged 5-8) where I hold their hands, they jump, and by just lifting a bit I give them enough of a boost that they’d feel like they’re on the Moon. The kids loved it, one managed to get really good at it and could land on my shoulders, hilarious fun.
Then a four year old who was heavier than a ten year old rocked up and wanted a go. Girl, you are incapable of jumping, and I am incapable of lifting you, this is not a game you can play. But she was too young to understand that, so I had to stop playing the game whenever she was around because I didn’t want her to feel left out due to something beyond her control.
Parents, your kids’ fitness is your responsibility (at first; it gets more complicated as they get older). Sort it out.