The winter presents unique challenges for parents and kids alike. While it is not easy to keep a child perfectly healthy during the rest of the year, the winter months are particularly difficult. With cold and flu season in full swing during the winter, it is important that parents take some extra steps to keep their kids healthy.
How Can We Keep Kids Healthy During Cold and Flu Season?
During the winter we are naturally forced to be closer together than we are during the summer months. Kids are cooped up inside, they are not able to go outside and play, and they are not going to be able to keep their distance from one another. Being closer in actual physical proximity is going to make it much easier to pass germs.
One of the best things that parents can do is provide their children with foods that help to boost their immune systems during the winter months. Foods high in minerals like zinc can help to boost the immune system and also help boost the production of white blood cells in the body. Foods with vitamin C can help to boost the immune system as well. Oranges, strawberries, and raspberries are all high in vitamin C.
Yogurt has probiotics to help protect the gut and digestive system and help to keep tummies happy as well. We naturally burn more energy when we are cold. As a result, you might need to increase the amount of food that your kids are eating to help keep them energized.
Limiting sugar is also important. Too much sugar can affect their ability to sleep and can also negatively affect the immune system. You should be encouraging sleep, helping your children stay hydrated, and also encouraging them to keep moving and stay as active as they can despite the winter.
How Do I Prevent My Child From Getting Sick This Winter?
Keeping your child well is less about disinfecting surfaces and what we might imagine the correct measures are. Rather, it is more about supporting your child’s immune system and helping them stay healthy from within. Ensuring they get the right vitamins and minerals can make a big difference. Offering them foods that are nutritious and healthy can also help support them this winter.
It is hard to avoid all illnesses during the winter. If you have a child that attends public school, odds are they are going to get sick at some point or other. It is important to support your child and ensure that you are doing all you can to help them get well. Exposure to illness is not something that we can avoid, but we can help to prepare our child’s immune system for this exposure.