When we talk about dealing with children with regard to the types of foods they eat and the activity they take part in, there's a lot of focus on wearing a pedometer and the number of steps a day and burning off a certain number of calories and not eating so many calories. I think I would be very concerned if we focused on specific calorie counts, or focused on specifically telling children how many steps to do a day.
I think the more important role we play as pediatricians is to encourage parents of infants and toddlers and young children to be eating healthy foods from the start, to be taking part in physical activity from the very beginning and to start doing things as a family. The family itself can go for walks. That doesn't cost any money at all. As the family starts to play together as a family, it's an opportunity for the child not only to be burning off calories but also to be bonding with the family.
So I would not want to focus so much on calorie counts and calorie burning, but rather on adopting healthy lifestyles.