Health Care Tips for Adolescents and Children
Children of all ages need to be given special education about their health. The importance of maintaining healthy living is the need of the hour, given the world we are residing in. Here are a few health care tips for adolescents and children that you may follow to ensure a healthy living condition in your kids.
A. Bad food habits cause many health problems in children. Therefore, it is important to understand how you may manage these issues.
- Give them calcium rich foods which will help in their bone development. Food items rich in calcium are milk, yoghurt, soy milk etc. are the items you want your child to drink. Keep them away from sodas and soft drinks, as they have small quantities of caffeine in them. This may cause them to get addicted to the caffeine. Calcium deficiency may cause weakness in bones, knock knees, sleep disorders etc.
- Protein rich food helps in muscle growth Creatine. This is common knowledge. However, the uncommon knowledge is that, intake of too much protein may cause kidney problems. Limit protein intake to the required level, and indulge your child to instead go for more sports activities that will help build muscles, and keep the child fit.
- Give your child lots of greens and whole grains. These help build stronger blood vessels and lowers the chance of falling prey to killer diseases like cancer.
- Push your children to exercise more and limit their time for video games and television. This not only keeps the body fit, but also reduces the chances of obesity. It is also essential for the mental growth of the child.
- Insist on serving a heavy and well balanced breakfast. Since this is the most important meal of the day, it is also the best meal to include most of the essential nutrients that your child daily needs.
- Girls specially need to take in more iron due to their monthly menstrual cycle. Iron deficiency causes anemia, and may pose a problem to them at a later stage. Since iron plays a major role in blood composition, it is essential for the boys as well. Iron deficiency is a very common illness amongst children.
B. Apart from a healthy food habit, it is essential for your children to get a proper night’s sleep. A growing child needs at least 9 hours of sleep on a daily basis. Therefore it is imperative that you specify a bed-time for your child, and that he/she abides by it. Lack of sleep causes disorientation in them causing them to lag behind in school, lethargic and irritable. A good night’s sleep cannot be compensated by sleeping extra on the weekend. So, help them get over this habit, if they are developing one.
C. Children nowadays are more stressed out. To ease this stress get them to do a little bit of mind relaxing exercises and indulge them to listen to soothing music once in a while.
By following these simple steps you will not only gain their health but also their confidence. You will see a definite change in their attitude towards the world.