WHO Updates Physical Activity Guidelines For Young Children

The WHO has released new guidelines for physical activity, sedentary behaviors, and sleep in children under 5 years of age.¹

The guidelines seek to provide recommendations on the amounts of time that young children should devote to physical activity and sleeping in a 24-hour day, as well as recommendations on maximum screen time. These guidelines fill a gap left in the 2010 WHO recommendations on physical activity, which did not include information on children under 5 years of age.

Among the recommendations:

• Infants (less than 1 year old) should be physically activity in a variety of ways each day, including at least 30 minutes in the prone position. They should not be restrained for more than 1 hour at a time and should have 14 to 17 hours (0-3 months of age) or 12 to 16 hours (4-11 months of age) of quality sleep. Screen time for these children is not recommended.
• Children aged 1 to 2 years should have at least 180 minutes of physical activity of the course of the day. They should not be restrained for more than 1 hour at a time, and for those aged 2 years, sedentary screen time should be no more than 1 hour. Screen time is not recommended for those under 2 years. Children of this age should have 11 to 14 hours of quality sleep.
• Children aged 3 to 4 years should spend at least 180 minutes each day being physically active, with at least 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity. They should not be restrained for more than 1 hour at a time, and sedentary screen time should not exceed 1 hour. These children should have 10 to 13 hours of quality sleep.

“Improving physical activity, reducing sedentary time and ensuring quality sleep in young children will improve their physical, mental health and wellbeing, and help prevent childhood obesity and associated diseases later in life,” said Dr Fiona Bull, program manager for surveillance and population-based prevention of noncommunicable diseases, at WHO, in an accompanying press release.²

—Michael Potts

References:

1. Guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age. World Health Organization. April 2019. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/311664/9789241550536-eng.pdf.
2. New WHO guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age [press release]. April 24, 2019. https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/24-04-2019-to-grow-up-healthy-children-need-to-sit-less-and-play-more.