Parents are taking babies as young as four months to special gyms amid growing fears about childhood obesity.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk
13 November 2007
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
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Welcome to our Women's Studies 100 Blog. Students will engage feminist science theories that range from explorations of the linguistic metaphors of the immune system, the medicalization of race, to critiques of the sexual binary. Students will discuss their thoughts and reactions to class materials in this space. We invite friendly comments and discussion.
2 comments:
Any parent that is paying 300 pounds "a term" (I'm unsure how long that is) for their four month old child to go to the gym and crawl needs to save the money and donate it to charity (check out my post, maybe they could help with the global healthcare crisis?)
Solving the childhood obesity problem in England should be done through a different method than $600 gym visits for babies when that money could be spent elsewhere for "better" purposes. Perhaps I am being insensitive, but $600 (even in London) is too much to pay for a pampered gym experience for your child when London is full of beautiful parks to walk in!
I had mixed feelings about this article. While I agree with the idea of encouraging children to be active from an early age, I also believe that paying $600 "a term" and enrolling children, as young as 4 months old, in gymnastic classes is a little over the top. Parents can just work with their children at home, crawling or playing with toys, or at a local park. As researchers pointed out, at the end of the article, it is not necessary to start children in "gym classes" at such a young age. The children can hardly crawl at this age and should not be doing forward rolls.
I do like the idea that parents are concerned about their children's health, but having a 4 month old start exercising is a little extreme. Children at that age are obviously still developing and do not have the muscles to do even the most basic gymnastics. Parents who are so concerned about their children's health should make sure they are eating healthy and having plenty of time to play and rest. As children get older, parents can begin to encourage different sports and activities.
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