Children’s Environmental Health Network

There is no denying the fact that the most vital part of maintaining a healthy and blissful lifestyle is eating healthy and being in proper shape. And when it comes to having healthy kids, good eating habits must be followed by them from a young age. Making them follow the right eating habits with adequate physical and mental exercise is enough to maintain good health and happiness in them. Let’s know how these aspects help in the growth of your kids.

Nutrition for Healthy Kids

Here are a few general guidelines that can help in healthy kids eating. Thus, discussing the diet for the right health care for your kid is vital before you place dietary change for keeping the kid on a good diet.

Some essential diet habits that must be followed by young kids are:

• Eating three meals in a day, along with healthy kids snacks.
• Increase in fiber intake in the diet and also decreasing salt usage.
• More water intake must be followed. Kids must avoid any juices and drinks with high sugar quantity.
• Kids within the age of 2 require fats in the diet for helping in nervous system growth. Also, make sure to not keep the kids on a low-fat diet without consulting the health care expert of your kid.
• Kids must have balanced meals.
• When you’re cooking for the kid, you should have broil rather than frying.
• You can lessen the sugar intake of your kid.
• You can eat vegetables and fruits as a snack.
• Decrease usage of heavy gravies and butter.
• Consume fish, lean chicken along beans for the necessary protein.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services and USDA made the following guide for food plates to parents who selected foods for kids aged 2 years or higher.

Five categories are there for food groups that highlight nutrition intake of following:

• Grains – Foods being made through rice, wheat, cornmeal, oats, barley, or other cereal grains that are grain products. Some examples are brown rice, oatmeal, and whole wheat.
• Vegetables – you can vary the vegetables. Select different vegetables, like red, orange, and dark green vegetables, starchy vegetables, legumes (beans and peas).
• Fruits – Fruits having 100 percent fruit juice can be counted as fruit group part. The fruits can be canned, fresh, dried and frozen, and can be whole, pureed, cut up.
• Dairy – Milk products and foods made through milk have been considered as part of the food group. It’s good to focus on low-fat or fat-free products as the ones with high calcium quantity.
• Protein – Make sure to get lean protein. You can select poultry and lean meats. The protein routine must vary – select nuts, fish, beans, and peas.

Oils aren’t food groups, yet a few like nut oils can contain essential nutrients and are also included in the diet. Others like animal fats are the solid ones and need to be avoided.

Adequate exercise with physical activity also must be included along with maintaining a healthy diet plan.

Keeping Kids Active along with the right nutrition

People who have seen kids enjoying on playground know that it’s natural for them to be active physically and enjoy moving around. However, it isn’t apparent that climbing to the slide top or also swinging from monkey bars also helps in the lifetime activeness of the kid.

As they’re older, it is also a challenge for kids to have enough activity on a daily basis. This is also possible because of:

• Increasing school demand
• Feeling among kids that they’re not good at playing sports
• Lack of role models
• Families with busy working

And even when kids lack the desire and time for activity, parents don’t feel comfortable while allowing them to roam free in the neighborhood as kids used to do ago in generations. So the opportunities to become active are limited.

Besides such barriers, parents also introduce a love for sports and physical activities in kids and this works well in their day-to-day lifestyles. With this, they get healthy kids patterns that last well in adulthood.

Benefits of Remaining Active

While the kids are active, the bodies do things that they want and require them for doing. Why? This happens as with regular exercise you get all such benefits:

• Bones and strong muscles
• Heavy Weight
• Lesser risk of developing type 2 diabetes development
• Getting better sleep
• Having a better perspective towards life
• Also, kids who are physically active most likely remain focused, motivated, and get success in school.
• Also mastering physical skills can introduce confidence with age.

How kids are Motivated?

Physical activities help kids in gaining a lot in life, how what would be the appropriate way to encourage kids for doing it? Here three keys are:

Selecting the right activities for the age of a child: When you don’t the kid easily gets frustrated or bored.

Providing kids with lots of opportunity for being active: Kids also require parents for making activities simple through providing equipment with signing up them for sports teams and classes and taking them to playgrounds along with other active spots.

After enjoying any activity kids wish to do it more. Practicing any skill – whether they’re cycling or swimming – results in nurturing of their capabilities and provides a sense of accomplishment in them, especially when the effort gets noticed and praised. With the good feelings, kids also wish to continue the activity and should also try others.

The best way for kids for getting physical activity would be to incorporating some of the other physical activity in their day-to-day routines. Preschoolers and toddlers must actively play many times in a day. Kids who are 6 – 17 years of age must do 60 minutes or higher physical activity in a day. This also includes free playtime in house, active school time along participation in organized sports and classes.

Importance of Teaching Healthy Habits to your Kids

Many people don’t emphasize much on this part! So, does your kid know about the importance of healthy habits for the prevention of flu, colds, and various other infections? Such healthy habits also include remembering to not touch eyes and share utensils and cups with friends.

Children have to learn to not share face masks and they should avoid playing with them. Whether kids attend school in person, learn hybrid, or online, it would still be vital they refresh well on healthy kids as well as adult’s habits such as frequent hand washing and avoiding making hand contact with the face.

Additional things that kids have to be reminded of would be using tissues when sneezing or coughing and avoiding any close contact with friends at school. Preventative behaviors such as these are highly efficient in minimizing or slowing down the spread of infectious diseases.

You can observe your kid for knowing about his/her daily habits and make the best healthy kids nutrition and activity routine for noticing improvement not only health-wise but in other capabilities as well. The ideal approach must be to give them a healthy physical as well as mental balance and these steps work just fine for it.