Good Posture

I agree with everyone else...set a good example, correct her when needed and put her in ballet/dance lessons.

As a 60+ year old, the two things I remember most about my parents and teachers were my grammar and my posture! Neither seems to be very important today. However, I will tell you that a child's posture DOES have an affect on his/her reading comprehension. Learning to sit straight in a chair/desk is very important, as well as sitting in front of the TV. Also, how one carries himself/herself sends a message of confidence or lack of confidence. You never see a slumping model. I always made my girls straighten up in body as well as mind and soul!

I have better posture than my mom! She really nagged me about posture growing up and it didn't really work. What made the difference for me was getting in to activities later on that required good posture and built core strength. Dancing, yoga, and Pilates are all great. For me horseback riding was amazing!

You could make it into a game and tell your 3 year old to correct your posture (when you are at home and there are no other people present if that is uncomfortable to you) and you correct hers. This way she will think it is fair and both of you could benefit from it.

I learned good posture from a very good, strict, (Russian) ballet teacher. I can still hear her say "Stomach in, bottom under, head up, shoulders back". She also taught us to be proud of whatever size or shape we were, and to stand like it.

My husband used to be a personal trainer through college, and majored in excercise physiology. I'll let him answer it. :)

All children have perfect posture from day 1. It's through our lifestyles of sitting, etc that they develop tight hip flexors, tight hamstrings, weak abs, tight chest, etc. If you watch a young child dive into a pool, you will notice they squat, put their hands up to dive, and -here's the important part- they suck their belly button in and dive. Their body naturally tells them to activate their "core" before making impact in water. It's amazing. Then, we are 30-60 and just let it hang out all the time with no core activation unless they think about it :). And the worse your posture is, the harder for your core to activate. Bad posture and weak core lead to overstressed and underworked muscles, risk of injury in activities or just nomal life, and will help with obesity.

Bottom line- posture is hugely important, and a very underlooked item at parenting in my opinion. Something else I notice as I study people is that children learn from you (duh). Not just behaviors, but mannerisms as well. Next time youre at the mall, watch a person walk who's toes point out, and then watch their kids feet. Most of the time they will walk identically.

So yes, correct your childs posture an make them aware of it. Not over obsessive or obnoxiously, but enough so it gets engrained I their mind that "this is how I am supposed to stand, sit, etc". And then you need to work on your own posture. And make sure you set a good example. You can't say "sit up straight" if you're humped over like a gorilla. It just won't work. :)

Getting good posture isn't hard to do. The body seems complicated, but it's not really. Just strengthen the elongated stretched Weak muscles when you excercise, and stretch the tight muscles daily. I.e- if you have slumped shoulders, your chest and lats are tight- and your mid-back and abs are weak. You can google anything. Just google "my shoulders slump what muscles are tight" and it should tell you. ;)

hope this helps,
Andy and E.
edenbabyfoods.com

I used to have great posture..... my mom always made comments if she saw me slouching as a child.... I think for most the reason for bad posture is just weak back and stomach mucsles.... I know that now I am overweight my posuture has gone a little and now that I'm working out it's improving again.... when you remember, make sure to make a concious effort to practice good posture, if you keep it up you will remember more and more and be able to for longer periods of time.... eventually it will become so automatic you don't think about it anymore. You daughter will get it just from you reminding her to do so.

I have perfect posture. (my friends make fun of me) I'm not sure why honestly. My Mom always used to tell me to "butt in, shoulders back" I always thought it was because I had a bubble butt and she was trying to make it look smaller.. lol good luck.

I think it's a combination of things. Yes, my mother was always telling me to sit up straight as a child. I was also in ballet my entire childhood which helped tremendously. As an adult you can take yoga and/or pilates classes to help correct bad posture...it works you just need to be consistent!

I think it is both too. But my mom and sisters always told us to sit up straight. Also, I am short, so standing up straight made me taller. I noticed that some taller kids in my class were slumping and I didn't want to be like them. I would suggest putting her in a ballet or gymnastics class because everyone I know that has taken either stand up very straight and don't slump. I still have to remind myself to not slump especially sitting at a desk or table so thank you for the reminder. If you don't think of it often, then put little notes in the car, on the fridge, at your desk. You don't have to put "stand up straight" you can put "stand tall." or something like that.

Do you also tend to get belly fat? I think that it may have something to do with muscle strength in you belly muscles. If you strengthen you belly muscles you may be able to improve posture naturally. I have poor posture myself, and all my fat goes to my belly. I don't know if it is cause or consequence. I am working on this, but not hard enough.

I have good posture but not because my Mother ever said anything or because she has good posture. At three she put me in dance class and they emphasised it. As I got older I realized teenagers who had good posture wore their clothes better and looked thinner than those who slumped even if they were over weight. I was also very small, always the shortest in my class and I felt taller if I stood up straight.

I hunched my shoulders just like my dad, but my posture improved greatly once I started doing strength training and elongating those back muscles

My mother had horrible posture, but as a result always emphasised it for my sister and I.
I should note, I also had two older (10 and 13 years older) brothers and they would embarras the heck out of my sister and I if we didn't display good posture - "knockers up" It was mortifying at the time, now I find it silly, but it was VERY helpful in being consious of our posture.

Keep encouraging and let her encourage you, too!

Actually, it may not be completely your fault at all! While I do agree that strengthening exercises do help to improve posture by increasing the tone and strength of your postural muscles, it entirely possible that you are not getting proper nerve innervation to your postural muscles at all! If you have an atlas subluxation (misalignment of the C1 vertebrae) it could be putting ever so slight pressure on your brainstem. Your brainstem controls all your respiratory function, your cardiovascular function AND your muscle tone of all your spinal and postural muscles! By removing the interference from this area with a very specific and gentle chiropractic adjustment you will eventually feel more comfortable sitting up straight. It will become "natural" to you and your daughter. It will not feel as impossible or painful to focus on having good posture anymore. Posture is not just good for looking confident, it can also increase productivity and brain power. Over 80% of your brains function is based upon figuring out "where you are in space" or keeping tabs on if your standing, sitting, where your arms and legs are located, etc. This is extremely important because if you didn't have an idea about these things, standing on two feet would be very difficult as well as walking. When your posture is poor, it can lead to respiratory issues, "brain-fog", fatigue, etc. because your brain is exhausted trying to hold you up! I encourage you to research for yourself the specific upper cervical work I'm speaking of. A good website is: www.upcspine.com. It's a patient run website that not only gives a layman's view of the care, but also research for you to read. If you feel that you would like to at least get a check-up in this area, I would love to see both you and your daughter. As a mamasource member, you can come in for a full check-up for only $45. Just be sure to tell my assistant that you found me on mamasource (mamapedia). My office number is ###-###-####. Hope to hear from you soon! God Bless.

For me it was piano lessons! I had to sit up straight and tall on the piano bench or else my teacher would bark away during the whole lesson. After a while it became such a habit that I sat up straight and tall all the time.

My posture was also because of sports. We had to have good posture and it just became a habit. Gymnastics, vaulting, ballet, horseback riding, all put an emphasis on posture.

I think posture is a mixture of both. My wife is upright with very good posture; her sister crosses her arms and hunches her shoulders. You can advise your child up to a point, but at sometime they have to make there own choice - during the teen years, I would think. I'd say keep encouraging good posture as long as you can hold their attention!

This, to me, is a fun and funny question. It brought back memories. I have good posture, for the most part. When I was about 12, my grandmother pointed out that a woman's figure and clothes looked better when she practiced good posture. If you sit rolled forward, your boobs point south, and your tummy pooches up. She didn't direct this comment to me, but I remembered it for some reason. Then, in my teens, I attended "modeling school", "finishing classes", what ever you would like to call it, and my instructor said virtually the same thing. Why would you put on a nice outfit only to crumple it in your lap? Choose good fitting, useful underclothes and leave the flimsy ones for evenings with your husband. I try to practice what they taught me. I also exercise to keep my bones strong and muscles toned which is the foundation of your posture. Keep practicing and keep trying.

definitely because my parents told me to do it. Probably as a child, they know what they see is right but can't break it down into specifics, like, "I know that person looks confident and impressive because of their posture" but posture does convey those impressions.

A good way to do it with kids, is find someone they really admire and say, "Look at so-and-so's posture. They sit up so tall and neat. Doesn't that look nice?" Kids relate to their heroes and try to emulate them.

My mother and my piano teachers emphasized good posture. My mother used to put her knuckle between our shoulder blades and tell us to sit up straight. I have always had good posture.
I also teach yoga, so people assume my good posture is from yoga, but it just from good ol' Mom.

Good question. I think it came naturally to me - but then, they did sit right. I am wondering if there is any genetic condition that you guys might have that would make it a bit more difficult to sit straight. Or, if there is a common thread there somewhere (like bad beds, large, overstuffed furniture that's way too soft) but that's just a bad guess. I would ask your doctor about it to see if there is any condition that would cause this. I'd do that before your kids' bones get too hard to change.