The Super Bowl is over. The Saints are Super Bowl champs! Did you get your fill of football food and commercials? The conclusion of football season for many of us means that spring is just around the corner. If you believe Punxsutawney Phil who saw his shadow, however, we are in for 6 more weeks of winter. In past blogs we have discussed the decline in physical activity levels of our nation’s youth and some of the potential reasons. A recent study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity has found that inappropriate clothing is another factor that may limit or even prevent young children’s outdoor play¹. Researchers looked at 49 child-care providers from 34 child-care centers in Cincinnati to determine why children’s physical activity levels vary across the centers despite experiencing the same weather conditions. They were shocked to find that having just a few children inappropriately dressed prevented an entire day-care class from going outside to play. Clothing that affected outdoor play included:

•    Inadequate weather protection (i.e. no coat/hat/gloves in the winter)
•    Unstable footwear (i.e. flip flops)
•    “Nice” outfits (i.e. clothing that had to be treated with care)
•    Jewelry (i.e. items that have the potential to get caught in equipment)
•    Ill-fitting clothes (i.e. too lose or too tight)

The teachers that were interviewed speculated reasons as to why parents may dress their children inappropriately which included:
•    Forgetfulness
•    A “car culture”
•    A hectic morning routine
•    Limited income
•    A child’s preference for a favorite piece of clothing
•    Parents concern with child’s appearance
•    Parents failing to understand the importance of outdoor play

These findings are a major cause for concern as 75% of children ages 3 to 6 spend time in childcare.

There are many organizations who are trying to raise awareness of the decline in the level of physical activity of our children and encourage a reversal of this trend. One example is the U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council who we highlighted last June in our blog titled The Other You. Since we were talking football earlier, another organization trying to boost kid’s activity levels is the NFL. The NFL has launched the NFL PLAY 60 campaign designed to tackle childhood obesity by getting kids active through in-school, after-school, and team-based programs. They even have an online child-targeted outreach on NFLRUSH.com. As part of this campaign, we here at The Cooper Institute have teamed up with NFL PLAY 60 to launch FITNESSGRAM® into schools and after-school community organizations. NFL PLAY 60 is the premier fitness assessment tool designed to educate families and students on their health related-fitness levels and to encourage healthy behaviors for a lifetime.
To learn more about NFL PLAY 60 and FITNESSGRAM® click on the links above. And remember to think about your child’s clothes before sending them to school or daycare. You may just be affecting a whole classroom’s chance to play!

¹ Copeland, K., Sherman, S., Kendeigh, C., Saelens, B., and Kalkwarf, H. Flip flops, dress clothes, and no coat: clothing barriers to children’s physical activity in child-care centers identified from a qualitative study. Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act. 6: 74, 2009.