2020 has been nothing short of an interesting year so far, and now kids are going back to school, whatever that may look like for every family. It’s important to keep the kiddos (and parents) immunity strong to help avoid not only the COVID virus but any pathogen that might make you feel under the weather.
Let’s face it kids will get sick and believe it or not it really is good for their immune system to get sick from time to time, that alone will strengthen it. But, with everything that is going on in the world right now even getting the common cold will be a stressful event so let’s be proactive with boosting immune systems so that kids don’t catch the sniffles weekly!
Here are my top 6 easy ways to boost children’s immunity and to keep it strong!
- Eating veggies and nutritionally dense foods! Of coarse diet is essential to maintain health, we are what we eat! Real whole foods are essential for proper immune function. These foods include fruits, veggies, healthy fats, whole grains, and healthy protein. Vegetables are some of the most nutritionally dense foods we can consume that contains most of our required vitamins and minerals. One of the best groups of fruits and veggies for immunity is Vitamin C, the best for this is, citrus fruits, including orange, lemon, and grapefruit, black currant, guava, green, and red bell pepper, pineapple, mango, honeydew, parsley. If you have a picky eater just focus on what your child likes and do more of it. The more vitamins and minerals you can get into your child the stronger their immune system will be. Don’t forget about the ones you might not think of as well like garlic, onions, and ginger.
- More Probiotics! Probiotics are good bacteria that help you digest nutrients that boost the detoxification of your colon and support your whole immune system. Digestion is key to a healthy immune system, and probiotics are a big part of having and maintaining healthy gut flora. You can get some good bacteria through supplementation or make probiotic-rich foods more apart of a balanced diet. These foods are – full-fat yogurts, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, miso, kimchi, and sourdough bread.
- Excercise. I know you have heard this one a lot but it really is extremely important to keep a strong immune system. Find an activity that your child enjoys and make it apart of the weekly routine. Even if your child only like to play video games, get them doing some physical movement video games, it is better than no movement at all!
- Minimize the consumption of added sugars and trans fats: These devilish items are found in foods like sweets, candies, and desserts as well as soda, juice, sports drinks, and sweet tea. Not only are these foods typically high in calories and lacking important nutrients, but they may also put kids at risk for tooth decay, weight gain, heart problems, and type 2 diabetes. Overall they serve the body very little purpose, they cause harm, especially in the long term.
- Positive Encouragement: This point can be a tricky one, but a very important one to add. Practice recognizing the best qualities that your child has to offer, try to not focus on any of their flaws. Show appreciation and respect for the good things that they do, and ultimately encourage them to seek out happiness for themselves. While it seems that encouraging your children is a selfless act, being motivating and kind to those around you actually has benefits for your own immune system and happiness too.
- Supplementation: If your child is extremely picky and maintaining a balanced diet is an everyday struggle for you, there are some amazing vitamins for kids that will fill the gaps from a diet lacking nutritionally dense foods.
These 5 suggestion will go along way to keep your Childs immunity strong. every person and child is different and will require different needs, if you have any questions specifically about your child’s immune health please email Hannah directly. hannahmoore@betterhealthclinic.ca
