Written by Michelle Flatt.

Five Tips for Child Health From a Pediatrician

Making sure your child is healthy in adulthood begins when he or she is young and full of life. Kids today have created bad habits for themselves that could lead to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in their future. However, this can be stopped by parents who are aware of the potential disasters their kids could be facing. Parents need to be good role models and exhibit better habits. Which in return would make the children follow suit.

Adults tend to keep their bad habits from when they were little. This does not have to be the case for all children though. Those bad habits could be turned into healthy habits which would then lead to a healthier, fuller life. Dr. Jennifer Trachtenberg believes these five simples steps could help keep children healthy and ready for adulthood.

Step 1: Daily exercise is needed. Let the boys and girls play a sport which they desire or let them play with friends outside. To maintain a healthy heart for children, they should be doing something active for at least an hour a day. However, kids should also do more than one thing, so they are not overusing the same muscles, so try rotating between a few different physical activities from time to time. You’ll also find that this improves the child’s mood and could create better sleeping habits.

Step 2: Eating more plant-based food and less meat packed proteins is another way to keep kids healthy. Things like fruits, vegetables, and grains should be a child’s most substantial intake; these foods give children the needed antioxidants, fibers, minerals, and vitamins. Parents should not be so worried about giving their kids the right amount of protein. Most of the time children are overeating protein during the day. Thus, an increase in plant-based food and smaller meat portions will go a long way.

Step 3: Another food-related thing to keep kids healthy is skipping desserts. Children should be full after dinner. However, if they do become more hungry try giving them fluids or maybe a small healthy snack could also do the trick.  Desserts can also be put under portion control, so kids are not eating all those bad sweets. Those same sweets could make it hard for the child sleep which would make a rough start to the child’s next morning.

Step 4: Talking to kids can help them too. Explaining the dangers and effects of drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol can be daunting. However, it is very necessary to make sure they know the harms their healthy bodies could face if one horrible habit begins. Even a smoker will tell you not to smoke, which should be brought up when talking to kids because things like cancer and other disastrous diseases could ruin their lives.

Step 5: Make it known that you care about your health just as much as your child’s. Planning family physicals and staying up to date on immunization and routine lab tests will show children that you want to be healthy too. This will help with keeping you healthy and creating good habits for your children. This is also the time to ask questions and be concerned about your health. Doing that could make children follow in their caretaker’s footsteps when they become an adult and need to put their foot forward about their health.

Original article: https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2019/02/heart-health-begins-in-childhood-5-tips-from-a-pediatrician.html 

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