The Importance of Good Posture in Children

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Healthy kids are flexible. They can perform all sorts of physical feats and limbering exercises that we can only vaguely remember doing ourselves. And that's a good thing. But...if your child isn't using proper posture as they bend and contort and walk and run and sit and stand, they might be endangering their health. Here's what you need to know about the importance of promoting good posture for your kids.
The Posture - Health Connection
Posture affects health in more than just the obvious ways of causing back pain and neck or shoulder strain. How a child sits or stands also affects their joints, internal organs, skeletal frame and mental capacity. Posture is directly connected to a child's ability to move, feel, act and think. Bad posture also limits range of motion. Your child's body can't move efficiently if his or her back is "out of whack".
Respiration is another concern. Rounded shoulders and bent over neck cause internal organs in the chest cavity to compress, making it more difficult for oxygen to be carried throughout the body. And a lack of oxygen is often the culprit when it comes to learning or concentration problems. Your child's physical body isn't disconnected from his mental capabilities.
Poor posture can be traced back to causing or aggravating such chronic problems as asthma, Attention Deficit Disorder, learning disabilities, exhaustion, headaches and a decrease in sports performance.
A Growing Problem
These days, there is little emphasis placed on proper posture in regards to physical and mental health. Many of us grew up hearing repeated warnings from our moms to, "Stand up straight!"
Today, our kids are often left to their own devices and that usually means sitting hunched over in front of a computer, lying on the floor playing video
games
, or peering down at the screen of a cell phone while texting. All of these activities, combined with an overall lack of physical exercise, are detrimental to posture and health.
Keeping Your Child Healthy
It's not overstating the facts to say that a focus on promoting proper posture could be the single most important factor in your child's health. Recent research studies have shown that good posture often has the best influence on human balance, movement and performance, making posture the most effective tool in helping your child think positively and learn more easily.
In the old days, children were often prescribed a rigid back brace to help them sit up and stand straight. Luckily, today we have better options. Proper posture at all times can be effected as easily as wearing a comfortable shirt that keeps the neck, shoulders and spine in proper alignment. These "posture shirts" use neuro-bands sewn into the fabric to make contact with nerve endings and encourage neutral anatomy.
These specially designed Evidence Based Apparel shirts automatically cue a child's body to keep their shoulders back, their neck straight, and their back in perfect alignment, as it was meant to be - so you don't have to tell them over and over to "Stand up straight!" The longer your child is allowed to use poor posture, the harder it will be to reverse the negative effects. Start by promoting proper posture in your kids now so they can live a long and healthy life later.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6940100

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