Did you know that playtime can benefit your child’s digestive health? Hear it from a certified registered dietitian and fitness educators.
Eating well isn’t the only thing you can do to aid your child’s digestion. Along with a balanced diet, regular exercise is also recommended as a way to improve your little one’s gut health.
Now, you might be wondering how to encourage your kids to exercise regularly. Should you sign them up for sports classes? Draft a workout plan? Perhaps consider a kids’ gym membership? Here’s the thing: getting kids to stay active isn’t as challenging as it seems. In fact, all they need is movement and play.
You heard us right – the kiddos simply need to play for their bowel movements to stay on track. To achieve that healthy-looking poop, we should ensure our little ones have healthy meals as well as sufficient physical playtime (preferably outdoors).
Still not sure how playtime can help with your kids’ gut health? We’ve got the fitness educators and a certified registered dietitian from Friso’s Good Poop Advisory Panel to break it down for us.
Exercise: An expert-recommended way to a healthier gut
Citing a study, certified registered dietitian Sherllie Kartika from Friso’s panel shared that “moderate intensity exercises” can help promote healthy bowel movements when done regularly. Regular exercise is likely to promote gut motility (the movement of food through the digestive system) and contribute to changes in the gut microbiome, which can help create a balanced and more diverse gut microbiome. The latter is especially important as a diverse gut microbiome is a distinct mark of a thriving and resilient digestive ecosystem.
Supporting this notion are Sherllie’s fellow panel members – Titus Ting and Theophilus Lim, fitness educators and founders of a multi-sports enrichment programme for preschoolers called Tiny Mountains. The duo have personally witnessed the positive impact of simple exercises on their students. “A recurring theme we hear from parents is that their children often eat very well after attending a class. This is because physical activity not only helps to burn calories, leading to an increase in appetite, but it also helps regulate appetite and food intake. This indirectly impacts gut health by promoting a balanced diet, preventing overeating or unhealthy eating habits,” they shared.
The Tiny Mountains founders also pointed out that exercise stimulates the release of hormones that help regulate appetite and digestion. As a known stress-reliever, lower stress levels after exercising can reduce possibilities of digestive disorders like functional dyspepsia (chronic indigestion).
So, what has play got to do with exercise and gut health?
If you think about it, physical play activities are a form of simple exercise. The best part is, play comes naturally to kids! Whether it’s at an indoor or outdoor play area, or at home with toys, Titus and Theophilus believe that kids are good at utilising the tools and space available to engage in play. To encourage movement, they suggested, “Take them to the playground, park, beach, or even to the mall. The more space they have, the more freely they can move.”
Parents, it’s time to bring out the balloons and bubble machines!
Not sure what kinds of play activities or simple exercises you can do with the kids? Here’s the good news: it doesn’t have to be complicated! In this case, bubbles and balloons are your best friends. “Bubbles have a magical quality, they capture the attention of younger children, prompting them to chase them repeatedly. For slightly older children, balloons provide the same fun with more opportunities to try new things, like using different body parts to hit them or to try to keep them from touching the ground,” the duo suggested.
In case you’re in need of some inspiration, here are three easy and fun activities:
- Scavenger hunt / “I Spy”
Challenge your kids to find things of a certain colour, shape, size, or texture. They can either bring these items back, or simply touch them and return.
Bonus: Integrate the object into movement! For example: if they find a feather, get them to ‘fly’ back to you. - Obstacle course
Create an obstacle course at home or outdoors with everyday objects. A tree root can be a ‘sleeping bear’ that kids need to jump over; patterns on the ground or tiles can be imagined as ‘traps’ to avoid or ‘stepping stones’ to step on. Kids have vivid imagination, so they’ll love it when they get to imagine things alongside you. - Music and dance
Never underestimate the power of a good song! You can dance along to a tune on the radio or your phone, or play musical statues with the kids. Music is a universal joy for kids of all ages!
Another way to boost the kiddo’s gut health? Take it outdoors.
All members of Friso’s Good Poop Advisory Panel advocate for parents to spend more time with their kids outdoors. Sherllie highlights the importance, explaining, “Spending time outdoors can expose children to a variety of bacteria, which promotes a stronger immune system. Striving for a completely germ-free environment can sometimes bring about more harm than good, especially for little ones with developing microbiomes. Research suggests that exposure to germs can benefit children, offering increased protection from illnesses, allergies, and autoimmune diseases later in life.”
In addition to outdoor play, Sherllie also called for parents to prioritise nutrients like prebiotics in a child’s daily meals. “The idea of supplements may be appealing, but they often fall short compared to the benefits of actual food for overall health. When it comes to gut health, I’d like to focus on prebiotics, which are essentially fibre. These are food for gut microbes which can be found in fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices. Parents should incorporate these into their children’s diet to help support a diverse range of gut microbes in them.
Join a Tiny Mountains weekend class and #MoveToGoodPoop!
Fun fact: play is what the preschoolers do at Titus and Theophilus’ Tiny Mountains classes. Their multi-sport programmes include a unique blend of movement skills and sports accompanied by music and storytelling – all within a 45-minute session.
In conjunction with World Digestive Health Day, Friso is collaborating with Tiny Mountains to offer weekend classes to families. A minimum purchase of $150 Friso participating products will get you two Tiny Mountains classes worth $80. For offline purchases, simply upload your receipts and details here. Upon successful verification, you’ll receive a unique code for class redemption via Tiny Mountain’s website or app upon successful verification. Don’t miss the chance to experience first-hand how play as well as movement can promote your kids’ gut health and help them achieve better bowel movement! More info available on Friso.
This post is in partnership with Friso.
