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Fit and Healthy Toddlers

Activities to Get Your Toddler's Heart Pumping

By Kim Seidel

Cardio is not only for adults. With the growing childhood obesity problem, it's important to get your older baby or toddler up and active. It's easy to do, as young children are naturally motivated to move.

A child's wonder years begin in toddlerhood, says Karen Ronney, a tennis pro, National Special Olympics coach and mother of three children in San Diego, Calif. "No longer helpless infants or babies, toddlers are ready, willing and able to begin playing activities and sports games that will build a strong foundation of health, coordination, balance and fitness," says Ronney, who is also the author of Proud Parents' Guide to Raising Athletic, Balanced and Coordinated Kids (Thomas Nelson, 2008). "It's never too early to show kids how to maintain healthy hearts, minds and bodies."

Toddlers thrive on trying more advanced fine and gross motor challenges. They like activities that engage eye-hand and eye-foot coordination, strength, flexibility, speed, visual development, depth perception and spatial awareness, Ronney says.

Oren Milgram and his wife like keeping their 13-month-old son, Gabriel, active. Along with taking Gabriel to classes that provide the opportunity to learn and explore, he's happy spending time in his exersaucer at home. The toy encourages standing while he plays with different activities and stationary toys, which promote gross and fine motor skills.

"He also enjoys practicing climbing up and down our flight of stairs while being closely supervised," Milgram says. "Our son enjoys walking with his toy pushcart and bending over to open and close its trunk and place objects inside." Since his toddler started walking, Milgram is looking forward to taking him more frequently to the local children's museum and aquarium, where he can walk around and explore. In addition, they like taking him to the mall, which offers a designated indoor playground area with equipment to climb on and crawl through.

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