From Your Health Journal…..”Please take the time to read Cassie Slane’s article in the Huffington Post called Will Strapping Fitness Trackers On Our Kids Help America’s Childhood Obesity Problem? Could we strap a fitness gadget to them to see what kind of activities they are doing during the day to help them fight obesity? There are many who support fitness gadgets to help children lose weight and fight obesity. We have gotten some good reports over the last couple weeks that obesity rates among children have dropped in some major cities, but there is still some work to be done. Please visit the Huffington Post site (link provided below) to view the complete article.”

From the article…..

If we are already monitoring our kids’ every move on the Internet and reading their texts and posts on Facebook, couldn’t we also strap a fitness gadget to them to see what kind of activities they are doing during the day to help them fight obesity?

I just reviewed the latest fitness gadgets on Fox, and they are quite informative. Mom’s could easily attach them to their kid’s belt loop and have complete knowledge of how much their child walked, ran up stairs or was sedentary throughout the day. Parents could then log what their child ate and have a computer readout on why their child may be having trouble maintaining a healthy weight.

This is crazy talk, right? Not really. One company is betting that parents will embrace it. A company called GeoPalz makes an activity tracker just for kids called the ibitz PowerKey that works with a mobile app. The $50 pedometer, available on its website now and retail stores in April, counts steps that can be collected and then cashed in for games, apps, shows or custom prizes through Amazon.com.

The product couldn’t be more timely, as childhood obesity rates in America have tripled over the past three decades and today, nearly one in three children ages two-19 are overweight or obese, according to the American Heart Association. If the numbers don’t decline, one-third of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives. Many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and asthma.

The question is, will parents use the device in the right way? I think tracking a child’s activity through the day could be a slippery slope when it comes to a child’s self-esteem. Imagine a parent telling junior that he needs to do a couple of laps around the house to balance out the pizza he ate for lunch because he didn’t take enough steps during the day. Or the mom who tells her daughter that if she wants to get a field hockey scholarship to Stanford, she better hustle more in practice because her numbers weren’t as good on her tracker as last week’s.

To read the complete article…..Click here