Posts
As the weather has turned and the children have returned to
school, the first things that come to mind are snotty noses, sore throats and
coughing! It never fails that as the
children return to school, the germ pool gets mixed and colds and stomach bugs
begin. The best thing we can do to help
our children ward off these illnesses is raise their defense system by boosting
their immune system.
The simplest things make the biggest difference when talking
about the immune system.
1.
Sleep –
Children, including teenagers, should be sleeping an average of 12 hours a
night. This number is more for younger
children and slightly less for teenagers (9-10 hours). Night time is when the body repairs itself
and gets ready for the next day.
2.
Water – Ideally, everybody should be drinking a
minimum of ½ their body weight in ounces of water. For example, an 80lb child should be drinking
at least 40 ounces of water.
3.
Sugar and processed foods – The more we limit
the candy, soda, cookies, crackers, etc., the better our digestive system works
allowing our immune system to work at a higher capacity.
4.
Increase your fruits and vegetables – I have
found very few people that actually reach their daily servings of fruit and
vegetables. Even my children who
complain that they are the “Only Children” at school that have vegetables in
their lunch, probably still fall short 2-3 servings of vegetables. Fruit is generally the easier one to reach
but be careful not to eat too much fruit either!
5.
Wash their hands – I really am not a fanatic
about touching public surfaces. I don’t
carry around a towel to open up doors anyway but I do insist the children wash
their hands before they eat their after school snacks.
One of things I am pretty adamant about during the school
year is making sure the kids are taking their daily supplements. I am pretty lax about the vitamins and
supplements during the summer but the week before school starts they are setting
on the kitchen table next to their dishes and silverware. I know a lot of people who come up with a
pretty big concoction of supplements but I stick with 3 supplements in our house
- Fish oil, Vitamin D3, and a multi-vitamin - the same ones I recommend to the
patients in the office. If my patients
say they can only afford one vitamin, I recommend Vitamin D3. I will talk about the supplements and why I
choose the ones I do next week.
Children get sick and so do adults. To completely avoid this from occurring is
impossible, but we can help the body by building its defense system so
hopefully we can get over it sooner!
