Kids not eating enough fruit or veg, say mums
More than a third of those mothers who participated in a study of mothers admitted their kids do not get the recommended 60 minutes of exercise a day, while 10% of those with school-going children felt their offspring were overweight.
More than 2,000 mothers participated in the survey of children’s lifestyles by the Irish website MummyPages.ie in September, which reveals 68% of mums believe their kids’ diets fell short of the recommended five a day. A large proportion (74%) said they knew they were falling short.
Just over 60% of mums indicated that their families sat down and ate at least one meal together at least five times a week. Around 13% of mothers indicated that their families ate together once or twice a week, while about 84% said they believed their children ate at least as well as or better than they did in childhood.
Asked how much physical activity their kids got in a typical day, 67% of mothers said their children got at least the recommended 60 minutes of activity, while a large number exceeded the 60 minutes substantially.
However, 33% of mothers admitted their kids did not get the recommended amount of activity.
Of those mothers who wanted their kids to get more exercise, 75% cited the weather as the major obstacle in achieving this.
The study shows that only about 21% of pupils walk or cycle to school at least three times a week — about 17% of kids never walk or cycle to school. Key obstacles preventing kids from walking or cycling were distance from the school, an unsafe route, the weather or that parents simply needed to use their car.
Established in 2009, the MummyPages.ie website is Ireland’s largest active community of mums.
