DETROIT – Doctors prescribing a video game, instead of medicine? It might sound strange, but one local health system actually had a video game custom-made to teach their young patients.
"We came up with a fun way that we could kind of introduce healthy habits," said Dr. Stacy Leatherwood, a Henry Ford Hospital pediatrician. "We know that a lot of kids play video games, and this is just another game that they can play, but while they're playing they're going to learn some healthy information."
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The game is called 5-2-1-0 Kids. It's based on established healthy principles.
"Kids come for a well-child exam or maybe they're doing a follow-up related to some other issue, and we introduce the topic of healthy living and we talk about the 5-2-1-0 concept," said Leatherwood. "Five fruits and vegetables a day. Two hours or less of recreational screen time, one hour or more of physical activity, and zero sweetened drinks. We actually have 'prescriptions' for it and those prescriptions have our characters on it that come from the game."
Nine-year-old Israyl Price of Detroit received one of those 'prescriptions.' She enjoys playing the game.
"It teaches you how to eat vegetables, and we eat vegetables to make you stronger and healthier," said Israyl Price.
Her dad Jayson Price likes the idea.
"It's a good game because they can actually learn something positive for one, eating fruits and vegetables and drinking water and milk, instead of playing wrestling games," said Jayson Price.
That early education is all part of the goal.
"We want to do prevention," said Leatherwood. "We want to talk about how do you start living healthy when you're a 4-year-old."
So far the feedback has been excellent.
"Parents are telling us they're asking for more water and they're asking about vegetables and that sort of thing, and we've had kids that have really enjoyed spending that time with their parents," said Leatherwood.
5-2-1-0 Kids is free and available to anyone for download on both Apple and android platforms. To learn more or to download the game, click here.