Easter is just around the corner and that means one thing for children…chocolate and lots of it! Between the Easter Bunny’s visit, egg hunts and treats from family and friends, children can end up getting A LOT of chocolate all at once.
While it is important to celebrate and enjoy treats every now and again, too much overindulgence can encourage an unhealthy attitude towards food and have a negative impact on a child’s wellbeing and behaviour.
A substantial sugar high can cause hyperactivity in children and will inevitably lead to an energy slump afterward – the sugar ‘crash’. Given the rapid rise in childhood obesity and sugar related diseases (such as diabetes) monitoring our children’s diets is now more important than ever.
Increasingly sedentary lifestyles are also providing children with fewer opportunities to burn off the excess energy that they are taking in. If this trend continues we could soon have the highest rate of childhood obesity in the western world – a very scary statistic for a country as small as ours! That said, no one wants to be a kill joy at Easter…and the Easter Bunny is unlikely to bring your child some carrots! Chocolate is one of life’s greatest pleasures so in my opinion it’s all about balance and moderation. Your child can have both a happy AND a healthy Easter. It just involves some planning and a few simple strategies.
Here are my top five suggestions for a healthy approach to the Easter festivities:
1) Incorporate some activity
If your children are going hunting for eggs then I say…make them work for them! There are lots of ways to make an Easter egg hunt more active and I know first-hand that children just love an element of competition. So for instance you could set a challenge for every five eggs collected (‘to keep these you must do 20 jumping jacks!’) or dot around some fitness challenge eggs – plastic eggs with a little fitness clue inside. This website has some ready-made fitness clues that you just have to print off and pop inside a plastic egg. I think children would love this extra element to mix up their usual egg hunt!
There are also lots of Easter themed games that will get children moving over the holidays. Now that the weather is improving these favourites can be played outdoors in the garden:
• Bunny hop race
• Egg & spoon race
• Egg bowling (Use a hard-boiled egg to knock down plastic bottles)
• Toss the egg (Throwing plastic eggs into a hula hoop/marked area)
• Keep up the egg (Try to keep a balloon ‘egg’ up in the air)
2) Egg hunts don’t have to be ALL about chocolate!
Easter egg hunts are great fun for children and a lovely family activity. However you need quite a lot of eggs to make a good one and that can amount to a lot of chocolate – especially for a young child. Consider changing up your approach to the traditional Easter hunt by using decorative or plastic eggs which can then be redeemed at the end for some chocolate ones! For example a child could swap every five plastic eggs they find for one bag of mini chocolate eggs. Another great idea is to fill some of the plastic eggs with little items such as stickers, action figures, hair accessories or balloons. Or you could even fill them with a healthy treat such as popcorn or berries! There is also the option of filling them with little experience tickets as shown in the image below. This way you will limit the size of the chocolate ‘haul’ but children will still have all the fun and excitement of the hunt. Plastic eggs can be purchased in most good euro shops and cost very little for a pack of ten or twelve. These can even be used to make healthy yoghurt popsicles afterwards!
3) Limit chocolate eggs to dessert
Once the children have enjoyed a bit of overindulgence on Easter Sunday, it’s a good idea to put some rules in place for the remainder. For instance Easter eggs should not replace meals or become breakfast for the next two weeks! Limit chocolate eggs to dessert or an after lunch treat and ensure to give your child a set portion – giving them the whole egg and then taking half away will only end in tears! This will also encourage a child to savour and enjoy the treat rather than just scoffing it in a mindlessly while watching TV!
4) Sharing is caring!
If your child is lucky enough to get a large amount of Easter eggs, you might want to encourage them to share these with people they love. This will help limit the amount of chocolate that is left hanging around and promotes an attitude of empathy and kindness towards others. It also gives you an opportunity to explain how too much chocolate isn’t good for our bodies and to teach a child to recognise when they have enough. Suggest calling to Granny with a surprise egg or keeping one for your friend who only got one or two. Encouraging children to share from a young age is one of the most important life lessons that you can teach them.
5) Keep some perspective
Taking all this into account, it’s important to remember that Easter is a once a year event and it’s what your child does all of the year round that really counts. One day of overindulgence will not do any harm in a generally healthy lifestyle. Keep the celebrations to the main day itself and then just get back to a normal healthy routine as soon as possible.
Also try to get in some activity now that the spring weather has finally arrived. Whether it’s going for a family walk or playing some of the Easter games outdoors, everyone will benefit from a bit of sunlight and some exercise! But most of all enjoy the Easter Bunny excitement and some lovely family time. Wishing you a very happy Easter!
Coach Eamonn
Park Academy’s JUMP Programme
