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Saturday, October 5, 2024

The Y – National Survey: Kids’ Healthy Habits Decline During Summer

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The YMCA in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics Institute recently released The YMCA’s Family Health Snapshot. This survey, with responses from nearly 1,200 parents of kids ages 5 to 12, underscored the challenges parents face in ensuring that their kids maintain a healthy lifestyle, especially during the summer.
Among the findings were…

While most parents (65 percent) accurately believe that leisure screen time should be limited to two hours or less each day, 64 percent report that their kids spend three or more hours per day online, playing video games or watching TV during the summer. That’s a 30 percent increase compared with results for the school year.

  • Only about half of kids get at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity during the summer.
    While produce consumption rises during the summer months, many kids still don’t eat the recommended amount of vegetables.
  • Only 26 percent of kids spend more than an hour each day reading a book for fun during the summer.
  • About three-quarter of kids drink sugar-sweetened beverages at least weekly during the summer, and about a quarter of kids average one or more sweetened beverages daily or nearly daily.

At the Y we know all parents have good intentions, but it is often difficult to keep up. That is why the Y works to turn these good intentions into reality with programs designed to strengthen their kid’s minds and bodies and keep them on track for good health and academic success year round.

All Y summer day camps ensure campers participate in more than 60 minutes of daily physical activity and include summer reading programs to help children stay on track with their reading and comprehension skills.

Our Y Be Fit Camp (ages 7-14) focuses on making fitness fun while our Academic Enrichment Camp(grades 2-5) helps campers sharpen their skills in math, science and reading.

If you would like more information on Y summer programming go to www.napervilleymca.org. If you’d like to partner with the Y to help “hop the summer gap” go to www.hopthegap.org.

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R.J. Bartels
R.J. Bartelshttp://www.ymcachicago.org/kroehler/
R. J. Bartels is Executive Director at Kroehler Family YMCA. Contact him at rbartels@ymcachicago.org.
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