Run, Jump and... Eat
Vegetables!
Healthy lifestyles learned at camp.
by The American Camping Association
TWEENS & TEENS News April 2007
With childhood obesity affecting one in five
children, camps play a vital role in reducing
this national trend. Camps are important partners
for families looking to make positive changes
that keep kids active and healthy all year long.
THE CULPRITS
Health professionals agree that numerous environmental
and social factors contribute to the eating
and exercise behaviors of young people. The
era of “walking uphill two miles to
school every day” is long-gone for most
kids, and with the availability of buses and
carpools most children no longer walk to school.
Outdoors play is also decreasing, with tweens
and teens spending much more time indoors
than kids did even just a decade ago.
Almost everyone is familiar with the Food
Guide Pyramid, but not many people are as
familiar with the Physical Activity Pyramid.
According to the Council for Physical Education
for Children, 60 minutes is the minimum amount
of physical activity recommended for kids.
Ideally, kids should engage in flexibility
games and exercises as well as muscular fitness
activities at least three times a week. Active
aerobics, sports and recreation activities
should be a part of daily activities, and
kids are advised to accumulate many of the
60 minutes of moderate and vigorous activities
from outside play, games, walks and other
modes of physical exercise.
Camps offer an optimal environment to encourage
varying levels of physical challenges. They
also teach active, recreational pursuits and
establish opportunities to learn active lifestyle
behaviors that can last a lifetime.
A Healthy Attitude at Camp
Camps take great strides to ensure their programs
offer opportunities for healthy and active
living. If children begin to change some of
their food and activity habits at camp, they’ll
likely maintain some of these behaviors when
they return home.
How exactly do camps help? For starters, camps
continue doing what they do best— focusing
on the healthy development of kids. Camp is,
after all, created for kids.
Here are more ways that camps encourage healthy
lifestyles:
•Camps help kids learn to like foods
that are good for them by presenting good
choices in a fun, safe environment.
•Camps provide teens and young adults
as mentors who can encourage positive, healthy
behavior in younger kids.
•Camps teach kids that physical exercise
brings amusement and serves as a smart activity
choice over television and video games.
•Camp environments can become the safest
activity-oriented learning centers outside
the school system by demonstrating a current
understanding of education and nutrition.
Food and Nutrition at Camp
Many camps look for innovative and tasty ways
to empower their campers to make healthy choices
and good decisions about food and exercise.
The following list includes some tried-and-true
techniques that camps use:
•Teach kids to alter food preferences
by giving them good choices.
•Offer taste tests to expose tweens
and teens to new foods.
•Encourage eating breakfast.
•Offer new exercise programs and physical
activities.
•Reduce fast food and junk food options
for snacks and side dishes by limiting chips,
cookies and candy. Meanwhile, provide healthy
options at the snack bar or camp store.
•Educate children about healthy eating
and knowing when to stop eating.
Physical Activity at Camp
Most camp programs are synonymous with activity.
The best camps offer fresh activities from
year to year to draw in new campers and excite
returning campers.
What Works
•Physical fitness fun with contests
and games.
•Active role models at camp.
•Physical activity that doesn’t
require lots of equipment.
•Activity teams or “buddy”
programs.
•Team competition days and special events,
including color war and inter-camp sports.
•Giving positive feedback on doing one’s
best and emphasizing participation rather
than winning or being the best.
•A wide variety of both innovative and
traditional activities, sports and games.
•A focus on fun and gaining a healthier
lifestyle.
Social Support
If young people see peers and adults they
admire, like their fellow campers and counselors,
engaged in active pursuits, they will likely
want to model similar behavior. For example,
if a favorite counselor routinely engages
in sporting events, swimming competitions,
hiking trips and other activities, it’s
easy to imagine joining the action. For in
the company of new and old friends, camp adventures,
activities and nutritious meals are simply
more rewarding.
Adapted from the article, “Kids
and Healthy Lifestyles,” by Viki Kappel
Spain, M. Deborah Bialeschki, Ph.D., and Karla
A. Henderson, Ph.D., published in the September/October
2005 issue of Camping Magazine. Reprinted
from CAMP by permission of the American Camp
Association; copyright 2006, American Camping
Association, Inc.
A Doctor’s View
by Edward A. Walton, M.D., F.A.A.P., F.A.C.E.P.
There is more good news about camp. In the
spring of 2005, the American Camp Association
(ACA) published a study confirming that camp
has significant positive effects on the growth
and development of children. Soon came a Policy
Statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP), as the result of the cooperation between
the ACA and the AAP.
Guidelines were created over a period of two
years with input from pediatricians, camp
nurses and other camp professionals. The underlying
theme of the new guidelines— communication
between everyone concerned about a camper’s
heath, including parents, doctors, the camp
and the campers.
Some guideline highlights for families
•Parents are encouraged to honestly
evaluate their child, and then determine from
the camp they are considering what is expected
from a camper. This helps ensure that a camper
and a camp are a good fit.
These discussions take on additional importance
for kids with any long-term medical conditions.
It is crucial that campers be included in
the choice of a camp.
•All kids should have their health evaluated
prior to camp. This does not necessarily require
a physical examination, but it does require
a review of medical history and current medications,
as well as an appraisal of the child’s
current state of physical and psychological
well-being.
•In the past, there had been a tradition
that kids on medications for mood or behavioral
disorders such as AD/HD have a summer “drug
holiday.” The new guidelines clearly
state this is not recommended for kids attending
camp.
•For the first time, homesickness interventions
have been taught to pediatricians. Ask about
them during health evaluations.
•The new guidelines recommend that kids
with illnesses that require special medical
devices, such as inhalers and EpiPens, have
direct access to them. Also, the camper and
the camp staff should be trained in the use
of such devices.
•For kids with a significant food allergy,
ask about the camp’s ability to accommodate
the special dietary needs, or whether another
camp may be a better fit.
Edward A. Walton, M.D., F.A.A.P., F.A.C.E.P.,
assistant professor of Emergency Medicine
and Pediatrics at the University of Michigan,
is a consultant on camp health issues to the
American Camp Association. For more information,
visit the Web site for the American Academy
of Pediatrics: www.aap.org.
