Healthy Active Living for Families: The 5-2-1-0 Approach

Healthy nutrition starts as early as infancy with breastfeeding. Once your baby begins eating solid foods, introduce nutritious foods early on and often. Sometimes toddlers need to try a food 10 or more times before they actually accept and enjoy it. It is also important to encourage play time as soon as they start crawling and walking.

To lead a healthy active life, families can strive to reach these goals:

• 5 fruits and vegetables a day
  

• 2 hours or less of screen time per day (or a healthy, balanced limit you've set in your family media plan)
  

• 1 hour of physical activity a day
  

• 0 limit sugar-sweetened drinks
  

To help children live healthy active lives, parents can:

• Be role models themselves by making healthy eating and daily physical activity the norm for their family.

• Create a home with healthy choices available and encouraged.

• Make it fun. Find ways to engage your children such as:

• playing a game of tag
  

• cooking healthy meals together
  

• creating a rainbow shopping list to find colorful fruits and vegetables
  

• go on a walking scavenger hunt through the neighborhood
  

• grow a family garden
  

Other healthy goals

In addition to 5-2-1-0, families can make small changes in their family routines to help everyone lead healthier active lives. Try:

• Having breakfast every day

• Eating a diet high in fiber and rich in calcium
  

• Including low-fat dairy foods such as yogurt, milk and cheese
  

• Preparing foods at home and regularly eating meals together as a family
  

• Limiting fast food, take-out food, and eating out at restaurants
  

• Getting enough sleep, since sleep loss can lead to unhealthy eating
  

Remember

Help your children form healthy habits now. Healthy active children are more likely to be healthy active adults!

More information

• Helping Kids Build Healthy Active Lives: AAP Policy Explained
• Physical Activity Checker: Are Your Kids Getting Enough Exercise Each Day?
• Choose Water for Healthy Hydration
• Make a Family Media Plan