To ask my 2yo to walk 4-5 miles a day?

[fannyanddick]

She's 3 end of November. School run 1mile times 4 plus extra bits during the day. Eg another 0.2 to her nursery x2. Shopping etc. Not to mention running around at home, park, soft play etc. She does it fine but is slowing down on some legs and is definitely more tired for it. Should I use buggy for one leg or is she too old?

Sorry, read she's 3 at end of November... probably able to manage it ok.

Not sure about children but the advise for dogs and horses is not to over exercise young growing legs as it can lead to issues later on.

If she doesn't have an issue with it then there's no issue. Only you know if it's too much for her

Well I walked my ds everywhere as soon as he could walk.Now as a teen he attributes his strong legs and sporting abilities to all the early walking. Who knows!!!

don't take the buggy. she's too old now and pushing a buggy is annoying. I see no problem with your routine at all, but i would probably give her a piggyback if she was dwaddling (sp?) too much.

Great exercise for you but she has little legs.

Sounds fine to me OP. We were doing similar with ds1 when he was 3. You can keep the buggy in case of emergency for a bit though - we needed it when he broke his arm at 3 1/2.

The buggy is handy for carrying all the "stuff" and I found it a useful deterrent for poor pavement/road behaviour.

I think in a school year she used it 3 times and each time she fell asleep and was actually unwell as it turned out.

Haha marmalade. It's not that. I find my shoulders feel all tight when I push the buggy loads. Like I've been too hunched up and need to push them back.

Didn't realise people would feel so strongly about this. It seems really split 50:50. I guess I'll just make my own judgment over time. I think we'll walk at least one round trip but may review the second depending on the day.

I get what you mean fanny. I find an empty buggy a massive inconvenience. Mind you that's partly because DNience2 was an absolute nightmare.

That interesting about horses. Any doctors opinions...?

Not heard that about horses and I used to break in youngsters! I mean don't take them on endurance races but they're born to run around fields all day from Day 1!

Dogs is more for bigger/heavier breed dogs because of hip dysplasia I think.

I would make sure she has decent shoes on. Not too stiff but supportive.

It depends on the child. If she's fine walking then carry on - and a sling is much easier to carry than pushing an empty buggy.

All mine were out of buggies by 2.5 except my youngest, who didn't walk till he was 21 months so there was no way he was walking miles at 2. He was in a buggy till he started reception as we had a long school run and he did full days at pre-school (and the one time I tried walking him he screamed with tiredness the whole way home)

Now all of them walk miles everyday. I'm a firm believer in walking - I worked in a school and volunteer at scouts and you can tell the kids who never walk anywhere very quickly on even the shortest of walks.

She would fit in a toddler Tula or toddler / preschool Connecta and could go on your back once she's tired.

Our walk to school is about 2k but very very hilly. At that age, I thought, sod it and took her in a pushchair. When she got to Reception age we walked but with an empty bag and lots of time to pick up interesting leaves - I often had to piggy back her home.

Don't see why carrying the toddler is better than pushing her in a buggy?

Don't see why carrying the toddler is better than pushing her in a buggy?

Probably depends on your build and your buggy but I found it much more comfortable, and liked having my hands free.

Plus carrier just goes in a bag when not in use, rather than pushing an empty pram.

I think it's easier to carry on shoulder for 5-10mins and walk for 20-30 free and unemcumbered than to push buggy the whole 45.

But not if you are carrying them the whole way obviously. But equally I don't find the carrying that hard.