Having kids is a great responsibility, and you need to constantly take care of what they eat and do to keep them healthy and raise happy, responsible adults. While this might sometimes be burdening, the satisfaction of watching your kids adopt healthy habits when it comes to eating, sleeping, and living is more fulfilling than everything else.
It’s easier to induce a healthy lifestyle when you’re already living like this because you’re just transferring your habits to them, and kids do precisely what they see in the family. But if you’re currently looking for ways to keep them active, read along and find out!
Foods to Boost Their Immune System
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In their first years, kids have a natural immune system that’s sensible and easily broken by outside factors, including food and the environment. Introducing healthy foods in their daily meals might help build a healthy lifestyle.
Try providing a diverse range of foods, with many vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and proteins.
That means choosing something new each week to add to the plate. You’ll keep your kids curious about what’s next and make them eager to try something new. For example, try kiwi, pineapple, or other fresh fruit if they’re tired of apples or bananas. When it comes to vegetables, you can make easy delicious meals with bell peppers, broccoli, and sweet potatoes.
Whole grains are also a good source of iron, magnesium, and vitamins. Some healthiest and most straightforward to add to their meals are oats, quinoa, rice, corn, and popcorn. Don’t forget about proteins because some are easy to cook in a short time: eggs, fish, lentils, and cereals.
Also, kids who go outside are less at risk of developing inflammatory diseases (diabetes, asthma). Spending time in nature or adding more natural elements to playgrounds helps boost another type of immune system, the adaptive one. Being exposed to different weather climates, playing with animals, and catching a cold from time to time only makes their natural shield stronger.
Physical Activity
Kids love playing and running around when they feel like it. They don’t realize that physical activity is essential for their health. Regular exercise has plenty of benefits for them, for example:
- Increased cognitive performance
- Higher self-esteem
- Lower amounts of stress and anxiety
- Improved cardiovascular activity
Building physical activity habits lead to a better adulthood life, with a considerable improvement in mental health. Therefore, if you want to encourage your kid to enjoy a healthy life, you can opt for summer camps in Brooklyn, NY. Your kid can have a broad range of activities to perform next to kids their age, like swimming, painting, and interactive games, like Kahoot. Most importantly, they’ll make friends and improve their communication skills through physical activities. If they’re associating sport with fun, adopting an active lifestyle won’t be a problem.
Participating in summer camps has many other benefits, like promoting independence, acquiring teamwork skills, and giving a sense of purpose when connecting to other people. Therefore, if you plan a trip to Queens, NY summer camps, do your research before preparing your suitcases!
Healthy Desserts
Kids love desserts, especially chocolate. With so many colorful packages and advertisements, it’s hard for them to stop craving, but too much sugar is harmful to their health, and sweets are full of unhealthy ingredients. Too much sugar leads to early tooth decay and more severe infections. At the same time, an increased sugar intake might lead to obesity, chronic diseases, and many more possible complications.
Therefore, you can try limiting their consumption of sugary products by identifying hidden sugars in their usual food. Hidden sugar goes under many terms, like dextrose, corn syrup, raw sugar, etc. But you shouldn’t be too restrictive with sweets; otherwise, they might start hiding when consuming something unhealthy. So instead, talk to them and explain why some are not good. Also, teaching how to eat everything in moderation is a good way of developing everyday habits.
Lastly, you can prepare healthy sweets at home. For example, combine fruits with chocolate, make homemade ice cream, brownies, etc. It’s also a great activity to involve them in because cooking together can help bond and build a strong relationship based on trust and love.
Building Strength
Building strength in kids is closely related to the health of their bones because they constantly grow and change until adolescence. So it’s essential to help them build strong bones to avoid ligament deformations or wrong positions. The formation is affected by many biological (hereditary) and hormonal factors, but it also depends on lifestyle habits, from nutrition to physical activity. In summer camps, they might learn discipline in exercising and having the correct form or warming up before any recreational activity. Still, there are other ways to improve bone health, like strength training.
Even if it sounds too much, training for kids is just light exercise, and it’s not only meant for athletes. Besides improving bone structure, it also helps in muscle development, healthy blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. It’s best to ask for the help of a professional that has worked with kids before and talk with your doctor to see if their health allows it.
Good training should include warm-up and cooldown sessions, build resistance more than muscles and provide a good technique. Supervision is essential because they’ll need constant guidance and reassurance. Try making the process fun, and they might enjoy it. But keep in mind that not everyone is made for this. Therefore you should look for alternatives that fit their personality.
Final Thoughts
Taking care of your kids’ health can be fun and exciting if you let your imagination run free to develop good habits. There are plenty of healthy foods and fun exercises for them to try. Therefore, you should offer diversity to maintain an active lifestyle. Making summer camps and other usual entertaining activities is the best way to implement routines.
