Does your restless child drive you mad?
The good news is their constant fidgeting appears to be great for their health.
In fact, a new study shows that fidgeting kids could be burning off an extra 3kg per year.
Researchers found children who frequently changed posture when doing sedentary activities, like colouring and watching TV, burnt more energy than peers who sat still.
The world first study, led by Deakin University and published in journal PLOS ONE, ooked at 40 children aged 4 to 6 from the Illawarra region of New South Wales.
Researchers measured the number of ‘posture transitions’ each child made – going from sitting to standing, lying to sitting, squatting to kneeling – across a 65 minute period.
They found a significant difference in the lowest number of transitions – 11 – to the highest – 53.
Lead researcher Dr Katherine Downing said measuring posture change could be a crude but convenient proxy for an underlying tendency to fidget.
“The fact there’s that much variation when children are instructed to sit shows that some children are far more prone to fidgeting or restlessness than others,” she said,
Dr Downing said when the results were scaled up across a whole year, fidgeting kids could be burning off an extra 3kg per year.
“That’s pretty significant in helping to prevent unhealthy weight gain,” Dr Downing said.
“Young children also spend a significant amount of time sedentary each day, around 10 hours.
“So this study provides some nice preliminary evidence that childcare centres, pre-schools, and anywhere children are spending a lot of time sitting, they should be encouraging children to stand up and move more.”
