All parents want their children to grow up healthy and happy. While it seems like a complicated task, there are some simple habits you can create in your children from an early age. Caring for the health of your children is your responsibility as a parent, so it’s important to find proactive things you can do to set them up for success.
Things like managing their moods, limiting their processed sugar, reducing the toxins in your home, and even making sure they go outside can help them develop great habits and be healthier as they grow up. Here are some of the best things you can do for your child’s health.
Limit Processed Sugar
How much sugar is your child consuming? You’d be surprised if you really knew. Added sugar lurks in things like applesauce, fruit snacks, yogurt bites, and even in cereals that aren’t considered “sugary.” This means that your child is getting way more exposure to sugar than if you simply gave them a bowl of ice cream for dinner. Let’s face it, raising healthy children can be exhausting, but one of the best things you can do for their long-term health is to limit their exposure to processed sugar. Why?
Sugar instantly reduces the immune system. And while enjoying something every now and then is no big deal, having this constant immunosuppression can make children more susceptible to getting sick. This means that if you can’t seem to figure out why your child gets every cold, start looking at how much processed sugar they are really consuming.
Another health issue that is plaguing many children is obesity. And sugar plays a huge role in this because of its link to insulin. As insulin levels rise, the body stores more fat. Lowering insulin improves weight management and helps to stabilize blood sugar naturally with spikes and dips.
Avoid Fragrances
We all love the smell of those baby products. The baby powder scent and the smell of baby shampoo. Unfortunately, while these products are allowed on the shelves, there are an untold number of toxins that could be lurking in these seemingly innocuous products. Things that should be non-toxic aren’t as healthy as they seem.
And while other countries require products to be free of more than 1300 toxins, in the USA, this isn’t the case. In fact, most of these products have never undergone something like hair care product testing or lotion product testing.
While there are plenty of toxins to watch out for, avoiding fragrance is one of the easiest things you can do to start removing toxic products for your children. Fragrances can disrupt hormones, cause skin irritation, and even lead to lung problems and lung disease. Homes with too much fragrance are as bad as homes with cigarette smoke. Some estimates reveal that fragrances are a leading cause of the same issues people experience with second-hand smoke.
Get Outside
Children spend all day cooped up in school. They need outdoor interactions. It’s important to get outside when you’re home together. Go to the park, go for walks, throw a frisbee. Anything to get fresh air and sunshine will do. During the summer months, going for a swim is also a great option. Sunshine improves vitamin D levels which help to manage things like hormones and the immune system.
Healthy levels of vitamin D also improve bone health which is extremely important for growing children. While most people think that calcium is the most important factor, most medical professionals check vitamin D levels when children aren’t growing as well as expected or they have a broken bone. Getting outside is the most natural way to boost vitamin D.
Focus on Hydration
Dehydration slows down every process in the body. When the body doesn’t have enough water, it can’t effectively remove toxins, it’s difficult to remember things, your digestion slows, and you might struggle with headaches and other uncomfortable symptoms. As a parent, it’s good to focus on hydration. Introduce water as a drink from an early age. You want your toddler to associate drinking water with getting hydrated instead of sugary juices and drinks. As they grow older, they’ll start to distinguish the difference between hunger and thirst more easily as well.