healthy kids: Healthy Habits

Showing posts with label Healthy Habits. Show all posts

Friday, September 19, 2014

10 Healthy Habits Parents Should Teach Their Kids

Parental Pearls of Wisdom

As a parent, you pass more than genes down to your children. Kids pick up your habits too— both good and bad. Show your kids you care about them by sharing these nuggets of health advice that they’ll carry with them long after you can carry them.

Habit 1: Make Eating Colorful

Eating foods of different colors isn’t just fun—it has health benefits too. Help your kids understand the nutritional value of including a rainbow of colorful foods in their regular diet.

That doesn’t mean that every meal needs to be multicolored. But you should make an effort to incorporate a range of fruits and vegetables of different hues—from red, blue, and orange, to yellow, green, and white—into their diet.

Habit 2: Don’t Skip Breakfast

Instilling a routine of regular mealtimes in childhood can help make it more likely that your kids will continue this good habit when they’re older. Teach them that a low-fat breakfast not only kick-starts their brain and their energy, but helps with weight maintenance and keeps chronic diseases at bay.

Harvard Medical School confirms that going without breakfast correlates with four times the likelihood of obesity. And the high fiber in many breakfast cereals can help reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Habit 3: Pick Enjoyable Physical Activities

Not every child loves sports—some may dread gym class—but when kids find physical activities they enjoy, staying healthy and active becomes easy. And they just might carry their love of it into adulthood.

If your child hasn’t found their sports niche yet, encourage them to keep trying. Expose them to a range of physical activities like swimming, archery, and gymnastics. They’re bound to find something they enjoy.

Habit 4: Don’t Be a Couch Potato

Get kids off the sofa and out the door. The Mayo Clinic reports that kids who watch more than an hour or two of television a day are at greater risk for a number of health problems, including:

impaired performance at school
behavioral difficulties, including emotional and social problems and attention disorders
obesity or being overweight
irregular sleep, including trouble falling asleep and resisting bedtime
less time to play

Habit 5: Read Every Day

Developing strong reading skills is an essential component of your child’s success in school now, and at work later in life. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), daily family reading routines help with children’s literacy development.

The AAP calls reading skills “the foundation for children’s academic success,” and suggests that daily reading to children should begin by six months of age. Choose books your kids like so that they view reading as a treat rather than a chore.

Habit 6: Drink Water, Not Soda

You can keep the message simple: water is healthy, soft drinks are unhealthy. Even if your kids don’t understand all of the reasons why too much sugar is bad for them, you can help them understand the basics.

For example, according to the American Heart Association (AHA), the sugar in colas provides no nutrients and adds calories that can lead to weight problems. Water, on the other hand, is a vital resource that humans can’t live without.

Habit 7: Look at Labels (Food Labels, Not Designer)

While your kids (especially pre-teens and teens) may care about the labels on their clothes, there’s another type of label that’s more important to their health: the food nutrition label.

Show kids how their favorite packaged foods contain labels with vital information about nutrition. Focus on a few key parts of the label (such as number of calories per serving, amount of saturated fats and trans fats, and grams of sugar) to avoid overwhelming them.

Habit 8: Enjoy a Family Dinner

With hectic family schedules, it’s hard to find time to sit down and enjoy a meal together, but it’s worth it to try. According to the University of Florida, research has shown sharing a family meal means that:

family bonds get stronger

kids are more well-adjusted

everyone eats more nutritious meals

kids are less likely to be obese or overweight

kids are less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol

Habit 9: Spend Time with Friends

Friendships are very important to the healthy development of school-age children, according to research conducted by the University of Florida. Playing with friends teaches kids valuable social skills such as communication, cooperation, and problem-solving. Having friends can also affect their performance in school.

Encourage your kids to develop a variety of friendships and to play with friends often. It will set them up with life skills they can draw on for years to come.

Habit 10: Stay Positive

It’s easy for kids to get discouraged when things don’t go their way. Help them learn resilience in setbacks by showing them the importance of staying positive. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, children as well as adults can benefit from positive thinking and good relationships.

Help your kids develop healthy self-esteem and a positive mindset by teaching them they are lovable, capable, and unique—no matter what challenges they encounter.

Written by Robin Madel

Article Source : http://www.healthline.com/

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Back to School Adjustments

Helping your kids adjust to the back-to-school routine after summer break can be a challenge. Here are some tips to help your children stay healthy and be prepared to meet the demands of a new school year :

Sleep • For grade school through teenage years, the recommendation is nine to 10 hours of sleep each night. Study after study shows that kids – and especially teenagers – are not getting enough sleep. One common culprit: electronics (computers, TVs and cellphones) in the bedroom. I recommend shutting off computers and television before bed and removing phones from the bedroom so that kids are not tempted to send text messages during the night. Insufficient sleep can have an impact on every aspect of a child’s life – mood, behavior, appetite, growth and performance in school. So enforce a firm bedtime because without enough sleep, a child lacks the ability to focus and learn all the information needed to succeed.

Breakfast • Research has shown a strong correlation between eating breakfast and school performance. Children who eat breakfast have better grades and test scores, are better able to focus and concentrate, have fewer behavior problems, and better attendance in school. But with today’s busy schedules, it’s not surprising that sometimes breakfast is skipped. So how do you make breakfast a priority? You can offer foods that require very little preparation, such as whole-grain cereals, toast, yogurt, instant oatmeal, fruit and string cheese. Even non-traditional breakfast foods in the morning are OK if your child will start the day with some nutrition. The important thing is to provide kids with the fuel they need.

Focus on prevention • Frequent hand-washing is one of the simplest and most effective ways to stay healthy in school. Teach your children to wash their hands before eating and after using the bathroom, playing outside and blowing their nose. Kids should soap up for as long as it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice (20 seconds). Give your children alcohol-based hand sanitizer to keep in their backpack for times when soap and water aren’t readily available. Remind your kids to use the sanitizer before eating snacks or lunch and after using a shared computer mouse/keyboard, water fountain or other community objects. Also remind your kids that hands are often covered with germs, and they should keep their hands away from their eyes and mouth.

Backpack weight • Kids put way too much in their backpacks, and their spines are suffering. A general rule is that a child’s backpack should not weigh more than 15 to 20 percent of his or her weight. For example, if a child weighs 80 pounds, the backpack should weigh no more than 12 pounds. The backpack should have well-padded straps, and your child should always use both of them. Make sure the backpack is sized appropriately. A well-fitting backpack should sit 2 to 4 inches above the waist. Encourage your child to clean out the backpack regularly to lighten the load.

Communicate with the school • Be sure the school nurse or your child’s teacher knows about any allergies or health concerns your child has. Also make sure the school has current contact information, such as your work and cellphone numbers, in the event they need to get in touch with you.

Plan ahead • Write down need-to-know information to help your kids remember details, such as their class schedule, teachers’ names, room numbers, their locker combination and bus numbers. Use a wall calendar to record when assignments are due, tests will be given, and when extracurricular practices and rehearsals will be held. Have your kids organize and set up what they need the night before. For example, clothes should be laid out in their bedrooms and their backpacks placed near the door, ready to go. With a little advance preparation, the mornings will be much more enjoyable – and will help to allow time for a healthy breakfast.

By Dr. Bob Wilmott

Article Source: http://www.stltoday.com/

Related Video :
Helping your Child Adjust to a New School

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The Secrets Of Happy Kids

When you eat right, move more, and enjoy life to the fullest, so do your kids. Many parents do a great job when it comes to the essentials of parenthood. They make boo-boos better with kisses, keep nighttime's scary monsters at bay, and cheer on their children's sporting and academic accomplishments. But to raise truly healthy and happy children, you must do more.

For optimal health, children must eat a diet low in sugar and high in fiber, fruits, and vegetables. For fitness and weight control, they need to exercise. For mental well-being, they must learn how to handle stress and accept their bodies. Modeling those positive habits for your children will get you halfway there. To finish the job, follow these pointers.

Instill healthy body image.

Unfortunately, today's obsession with being superthin is taking root earlier and earlier in childhood. Even a first-grader is likely to believe that "thinner is better," reports a recent Australian study of more than 500 school-age girls and boys.

This precocious desire for thinness can lead to unhealthy eating behaviors at a time when good nutrition is critical to healthy physical development: Nearly one in three 10- to 14-year-old girls restricts her food intake, concludes a Canadian survey of 2,220.

"Studies routinely find that about 40% of elementary school girls and 25% of elementary school boys are dissatisfied with their bodies," says Linda Smolak, PhD, a Kenyon College psychologist who studies body image and eating disorder development in children and adolescents. These unhappy and self-conscious kids report more frequent feelings of depression, insecurity, and anxiety.

To thwart unhealthy body image, counter the images that bombard your kids. Follow these tips:

Uncover media myths. TV, movies, music videos, fashion magazines, video games, and the Internet inundate children with unfiltered, unreliable, and unrealistic messages about what is beautiful and desirable. Don't wait for kids to ask about what they see on the screen or in photos the way you might wait for questions about how babies are made. Instead, be alert to opportunities for explaining that the ultrathin young actress or the supermuscular athlete has a body that is not realistic for most of us.

Give alternatives. You might hear your daughter say, "Yuck. Look at that fat girl. She needs to be on a diet." Respond by explaining that, although being too heavy can be unhealthy, dieting usually isn't the solution—and being heavy doesn't make someone yucky or bad. Tell her that instead of dieting, it's better to eat healthful foods and move your body every day.

Listen to yourself. As you're talking to your kids about their body image, listen to those little comments you make about yourself like "I feel fat today" or "I have to lose five pounds before bathing-suit season." Sound familiar? Remember, you're caught up in the same culture that's influencing your children, and what you say about your own body will strongly influence how your child sees herself, especially if she is under age 12, says Smolak. Children model their beliefs and behaviors on what you do, not on what you say they should do.

By Alisa Bauman

Article Source: http://www.prevention.com/

Related Video :
How To Be Happy: secrets of happiness for you and your kids

Top 10 Tips to Help Children Develop Healthy Habits

You can help your child develop healthy habits early in life that will bring lifelong benefits. As a parent, you can encourage your kids to evaluate their food choice and physical activity habits. Here are some tips and guidelines to get you started.

Be a good role model - You don’t have to be perfect all the time, but if kids see you trying to eat right and getting physically active, they’ll take notice of your efforts. You’ll send a message that good health is impor¬tant to your family.
Keep things positive - Kid’s don’t like to hear what they can’t do, tell them what they can do instead. Keep it fun and positive. Everyone likes to be praised for a job well done. Celebrate successes and help children and teens develop a good self-image.
Get the whole family moving - Plan times for everyone to get moving together. Take walks, ride bikes, go swimming, garden or just play hide-and-seek outside. Everyone will benefit from the exercise and the time together.
Be realistic - Setting realistic goals and limits are key to adopting any new behavior. Small steps and gradual changes can make a big difference in your health over time, so start small and build up.
Limit TV, video game and computer time - These habits lead to a sedentary lifestyle and excessive snacking, which increase risks for obesity and cardiovascular disease. Limit screen time to 2 hours per day.
Encourage physical activities that they’ll really enjoy - Every child is unique. Let your child experiment with different activities until they find something that they really love doing. They’ll stick with it longer if they love it. check out these activities for kids.
Pick truly rewarding rewards - Don’t reward children with tv, video games, candy or snacks for a job well done. Find other ways to celebrate good behavior.
Make dinnertime a family time - When everyone sits down together to eat, there’s less chance of children eating the wrong foods or snacking too much. Get your kids involved in cooking and planning meals. Everyone develops good eating habits together and the quality time with the family will be an added bonus.
Make a game of reading food labels - The whole family will learn what’s good for their health and be more conscious of what they eat. It’s a habit that helps change behavior for a lifetime. Learn more about reading nutrition labels.
Stay involved - Be an advocate for healthier children - Insist on good food choices at school. Make sure your children’s healthcare providers are monitoring cardiovascular indicators like BMI, blood pressure and cholesterol. Contact public officials on matters of the heart. Make your voice heard.

Article Source: http://www.heart.org/

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

How To Get Your Kids to Play Outside

Healthy kids are something we all want. Let's face it there's not much more that breaks our hearts than seeing our own kids suffering because they're sick or under the weather. Most of us would rather be sick ourselves than to see our own kids suffering due to an illness. Since not having our kids get sick is so important to us, it's really important that we teach and also set good examples of healthy living for our kids.

How can we honestly think our own kids are going to develop good healthy habits if their parents aren't setting good examples? Kids learn a great deal by simply observing what their parents do. This is true throughout their lives.

Having said that, here are a few things you can do as a parents or guardians to ensure your kids are getting every chance to pick up and learn good healthy habits. Many of these will also help us as parents get some needed exercise.

► During the summertime or when the weather is nice take a family walk or a bike ride every night. This type of exercise is not only good for your health it also is a good idea to do a family activity; this'll encourage and support the belief in the family spending quality time together.

► Share outside chores with your kids. These don't have to be difficult things but some things like helping water your trees or helping pick weeds or racking the grass can help your kids appreciate the outdoors, not to mention earn a sense of achievement by helping out.

► Encourage your kids' involvement in sports at a young age. Most communities have some sort of organized summer sports. These can include T-ball, baseball, basketball, etc. Pick out a couple for your kids to try out. Don't get discouraged if your kids don't seem to take an interest and be careful not "push" your kids into sports, they must take in interest for it to be sustainable.

► Get involved in some healthy lifestyle activities yourself. By taking up running or by joining an adult sports league of some sort, your kids will more likely take an interest in getting involved in sports activities.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3079840