There are two vital components that are involved when teaching our kids about healthy living and health. The first lesson is to understand what a healthy lifestyle is. The next component is to build a model of a healthy lifestyle into the behaviors and choices our kids make.
Healthy Eating
Childhood obesity is rising and is as high as we have ever seen. This means that parents should make good healthy food choices when selecting meals to select from. Kids can make good choices at home when eating as well as when it is time to eat out at their favorite restaurant. Protein is a vital important part of a healthy diet. This would mean poultry, meats and fish which all contain very high levels of protein. Teaching our kids that protein works like gas in a train and it is needed for the vehicle to run properly.
Make the side dishes your children make, a healthy choice as well. Rice, pasta, and potatoes are good sources. Fruits and vegetables are good also. Grains on the other hand are best. Help them to understand the potions sizes of these sources. Carbs are also important in our kids diet. But help them to understand that not all carbs are good for them. Teach them which carbs are good and which ones are bad so they can they make better decision about the selections they eat.
Remember, that a healthy diet does include some fats, so you don’t want to eliminate them entirely. Your kids can have some sugar. Just don’t overdue it.
Exercise And Health
In past decades, kids used to play outside until the moon appeared. These days are quite different. More and more parents are looking at the safety concerns when leaving children outside with no supervision. Work days are even more hectic which means that any kids activities need to be scheduled in order for our kids to play.
When kids do have free time, kids these days are frequently involved in sedentary activities like gaming, computer time, or watching television. There are some innovative video games that promote healthy activities as a part of the experience, and this is a great way to incorporate exercise with gaming; however, the majority of video games are still sit and play games.
The best way to teach kids when it comes to healthy exercise is to allow them to participate in fun healthy activities.
Some activities that can get the heart pumping would be walking, climbing trees, and even playing on the monkey bars. Riding your bike and or jumping rope, running and chasing your friends are numerous ways of creating healthy exercise.
Teaching Healthy Hygiene
When your kids were tiny, most loved bath time. They couldn’t get enough of their time in the water with their bubbles and toys. Back then, you were pretty much in charge of ensuring that they came out of the tub sparkling clean and shiny, though, so there wasn’t a lot of hassle about bathing. Unfortunately, most kids hit a stage when you need to monitor their bathing habits or they’ll skip bathing altogether.
There comes a point in our kids life when taking a bath or shower is a daunting task. Sometimes they are lazy about washing thoroughly. Some seen unaware that they need good hygiene habits. We as parents should teach our children how to bathe themselves for healthy hygiene.
Teaching your children how to use a washcloth is important as well. Try to start by helping them to understand they need to wash behind the ears, and in all body crevices. Also how to wash the hair by using the fingertips to message to scalp to work the suds that wash the hair. Did you know that learning how to properly dry off is equally important?
Dental care is another important part of good hygiene. Children should be taught how to brush and floss from a very young age. Mouthwash is also a great habit to initiate early in your child’s life so that it becomes a part of their lifelong healthy routine. Again, modeling these behaviors is the best way to teach them.
We Are Parents
Parents need to take their parenting responsibilities seriously. In addition to teaching them about eating right, exercising, and proper hygiene, they need to model all of these healthy behaviors personally. They also need to talk with their children-and listen-so they can help them avoid the negative influences of others and prevent them from adopting bad habits like smoking, drinking, or drugs.
Responsibility should also be taught to our kids. Examples would be to learn how to do the laundry, household chores as well. Teaching our kids these things will be of importance down the road for when they grow up and are out on their own.
Warren D. Griffin writes articles on fitness, health, and nutrition. Teaching kids about health is important. Find out how to teach kids about health and obesity. My new book teaches parents how to defeat childhood obesity for better health!
Tags: diet, health, Healthy kids, obesity, overweight kids, weight loss