The fitness tracker craze has kids racing toward obsession
When canada goose 6 year old Addison jumps out of bed, the Long Island fitness buff clips canada goose uk outlet her 3 D TriFit Pedometer Canada Goose sale to her pink onesie. Then she runs around the canada goose outlet canada house to rack up the steps.
“There are days where she’s worn it all day https://www.doloresnet.com and had 12,000 steps,” says her mom, Deena, an elementary school teacher who withheld their last name for privacy reasons. Deena, a runner who wears a Garmin fitness watch, says Addison “just wants to beat me. I can see how that can get out of hand. But if my child has to be obsessed with something, I’d rather her be obsessed with how many steps she’s taking than a video game.”
Just buy canada goose jacket cheap like their parents, official canada goose outlet kids have become consumed by the canada goose factory outlet fitness tracker craze. That’s good news given children glued to their screens can see their weight rise and their grades drop. But is trading one obsession for another actually good for their health?
While there are no stats on kids who wear fitness trackers a 2015 report from research firm Forrester cites only that 20 percent of Americans use some sort of fitness wearable anecdotal evidence shows kids as young as 4 years old are following their parents by counting steps and canada goose outlet shop comparing numbers.
Kids become addicted to monitoring their step counts, [but] if that canada goose outlet in usa translates into moving more to stay ahead canada goose outlet online uk of their friends, that’s a win.
For many, it’s a lesser of two evils trade off.
“Kids become addicted to monitoring their step counts, [but] if that translates into moving more to stay ahead of their friends, that’s a win,” says Upper East canada goose jacket outlet Side based sports medicine doctor Jordan Metzl.
But it’s unclear if the trackers have any lasting benefits and some worry that they may actually contribute to unhealthy behaviors down the line.
Alexis Conason, a clinical psychologist in Midtown, notes that canada goose outlet nyc “kids can become compulsive about a device like the Fitbit.” She’s especially concerned with trackers that count calories and the effects that might have on children’s eating habits.
“We canada goose uk black friday want to help children learn to care for their bodies through pleasurable physical activity and eating guided by internal signs of hunger and fullness,” says Conason. “I think that devices like the Fitbit take us away from those goals and encourages distorted thinking about health and body image.
Mom Ella Leitner is equally concerned. When her 9 year old daughter came back from summer camp excited about her friends’ trackers, Leitner thought it would be a good way to “get her off devices, keep her outdoors and active.” But her daughter, she says, quickly became compulsive.
“It’s another piece of technology,” says Leitner, a 41 year old canada goose outlet black friday Lower East Side resident who put the kibosh on the new addiction. “[It’s not good for a] healthy almost 10 year old who is small for her age and thin to begin with.”
Jacob Sheldon, 11, and his mother, Lina, are a competitive pair cheap Canada Goose of Fitbit users.
A spokesperson for Fitbit stresses that its devices are “not directed at persons under the age of 13.” But the Fitbit Zip, as well as several other brands’ wearables, offer colorful, durable choices frequently touted as cheap canada goose kid buy canada goose jacket friendly online. LeapFrog has one specifically for kids: The LeapBand, designed to get them moving with different challenges and offering helpful information about nutrition.
Whether or not the obsession is healthy, it’s clear it often starts at home.
“Ever since my mom got one, I wanted one. It looked like she was having fun competing with other people,” says 8 year old Chelsea resident Leah Hodorov. Her mother, Marina Levin, 40, a health care analytics worker, gifted Leah and her two siblings Rachel, 11, cheap canada goose and Marc, 13 each with a Fitbit Charge 2.
“Anything that can be measured, they want to do better than the other one and now it’s how many steps they get,” says Levin.
“If I’m at 9,800 steps, I’ll jump around the apartment to get to 10,000,” says eighth grader Marc, referencing Fitbit’s 10,000 step baseline goal for its adult users (roughly five miles).
When he accidentally leaves it at home, Marc, who can crack 20,000 steps a day, says, “It really sucks because you’re 10,000 steps behind everybody.”
Some teachers are wary about fitness trackers in school including Deena, who says some of her fifth grade students are fixated with quantifying their workouts. “They are so competitive with each other,” she laments.
They just want to see the number change not to be healthier.
Shoshana, a kindergarten teacher on canada goose outlet store uk the Upper East Side who declined to give her last name for privacy reasons, says she’s unhappy with the devices’ growing popularity.
“One kid said he’s getting one, and he already has a hard time paying attention. Canada Goose Outlet I can picture it being a huge distraction,” Shoshana says. “Plus, [it’s not the] right kind of competition. They just want to see the number change not to be healthier.”
Jacob Sheldon, 11, from Montville, NJ, was an early adopter of the trend, having been the first kid in his third grade class to get a Fitbit. While he loves challenging his friends to races at school, his mom, canada goose outlet online Lina, 42, a litigation paralegal, says it motivated her son to stay active after the family moved from the city to “the sedentary suburbs.”.
