When it comes to your kids, you must be very careful about their health and overall fitness and here the need of developing good health habits come into play. In other words, childhood is the best time to introduce good habits in your child. If you can help your child growing up eating healthy foods, doing regular exercises, getting sufficient amount of sleep and practicing effective hygiene, he is very likely to stick with those throughout his life.
Here are some tips that will help your children grow healthy.
* Regular exercise – Try to let your children habituate with good habits, like practicing exercise regularly. Establishing regular exercising habits early on is a very important step towards being healthy. They must practice exercise for at least an hour every day including 10 to 15 minutes of warm up, jogging, stretching etc. Exercises can be practiced individually or in pair as in jumping rope, bicycling, and rollerblading. They can be also done in group as in swimming. You must take care of weight training after your child reaches the age of 15. This is often called as Tanner stage.
* Proper nutrition – You must be careful about your children's daily food intake. If they eat well and healthy, they will be fit throughout the life. According to the National Institutes of Health, 5 servings of fresh vegetables and fruits a day, protein from nuts, lean meat and eggs are the are very much required for the children to grow healthy and stay active. As fibrous foods, you can consider cereals, whole grain breads. You must keep your children from consuming junk foods. Encourage them to take grilled, boiled or steamed foods instead of fried one. They should drink plenty of water, fruit juice and milk instead of cold drinks or soda.
* Good hygiene – Children tend to touch things around them and consequently pick up and spread germs and thus infection. It is true that some level of exposure to germs is needed in order to develop body's immunity, but this is not true for a sickly child. Children should always be instilled with hand-washing habits, especially the sickly ones. Teach your children to wash hands vigorously with soap and water, preferably lukewarm water before and after eating or handling foods. They must be asked to wash their hand even after using bathroom and public restrooms. They should also avoid touching door handles of public toilette, restrooms etc.
* Adequate amount of rest – Children must have adequate amount of rest and sleep every day. As a parent, you should establish a regular bedtime for your child, especially if he is between the ages of 1 and 4. Toddlers usually need 10 to 12 hours of sleep every day including their nap times. Children who are between 6 years and 9 years must have a total daily sleep of 10 hours, while teenagers should sleep for 8 to 9 hours in total. It would help them to grow healthy to their adolescence. Insufficient sleep is a must for increase attention, sharp memory and better performance in school and college.
Donna Baxter is a reputed healthcare industry blogger. From HIV AIDS prevention and care to kids' health tips – she writes on a wide variety of healthcare topics.
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