Can walking for approx 30minutes be bad for toddlers joints?

Hi - I hope you don't mind me posting on your forum as a member of the general public? My daughter will turn two on Saturday and loves walking up to her grandparents house. It's a five minute walk for me on my own or a 15+ minute walk with her. But every time we walk instead of using her push-along bike, my mother and father-in-law tell me it's too far for her to walk and that it's bad for her joints. My MIL puts down her own arthritis and painful hips to the fact that she was made to walk too far when she was young. I'd love to have some professional opinions to either reassure them that it's not causing any harm or to stop doing it if they are correct.

Thanks
Katherine

Welcome to the forum, all questions are responded to, and your's is interesting indeed.

I doubt the conclusion that: "puts down her own arthritis and painful hips to the fact that she was made to walk too far when she was young"

But will allow others to respond, and perhaps look into it a little more

dear Katherine,

Children are still very much "in touch" with their own body.
Children also love to repeat movements or games they have just learnt.
A child that is tired will tell you so.
I have even seen children just stop, sit or lie down and refuse to go any further or " exercise " any longer.............. it is fantastic.
I did learn the hard way... as a mum I did not listen to my son telling me he was too tired to ride his bike any longer.... I told him to keep trying( I am a physio!). Result was he fell off his bike and broke his arm......poor kid.....you can imagine how stupid and guilty I felt.

Listening to them because they still listen to what their body is telling them is the best advice I can give you.

have fun with your daughter

kind regards
Esther de Ru

Your mother-in-law's opinion is one of the silliest things I've ever heard about a child's activity level. Just because young children tend to be active in short bursts (is has to do with the different energy systems in their body having different capacities than an adults) that doesn't mean they are not capable of being active for extended periods of time. And I cannot think of any way that your child's joint health will be adversely affected by walking for 30 minutes. I suspect any colleagues out there specialized in paediatric orthopaedics will agree with me in this matter.

Osteoarthritis (to some degree) is an inevitable part of the aging process.

I think that limiting physical activity for kids is more likely to lead to childhood (and possibly, adult) obesity. Obesity is a contributing factor to the development of osteoarthritis, not to mention a variety of other significant health problems.

Most children want and need to be active. Physical activity is essential for motor skill acquisition, bone and joint modelling/development, neurosensory development, to name just a few.

Getting out and active with kids is a wonderful part of parenting - one of my great pleasures is cycling with my 8 year old son. I think that your daughter will limit her own activity when she is tired.

Paul