Healthy Families: How to Keep Your Kids (and Yourself) Feeling Great During the School Year!

     

“Back to School” means a time of transitions: Sleep cycles, mealtimes and activity levels all change significantly.  Here are five important preventive care strategies to help you and your children make it through the school year in great health!

    

1. Get Enough Sleep

     

Bedtimes tend to drift during the summer months... the sun sets later and it’s hard to get the kids inside when there are so many fun things to do! Still, with school starting up, sleep becomes an important part of every family’s wellness strategy.

     

Sleep requirements vary according to age and even then every child is different: A good ballpark number for your kindergartener or first grader is 10 ¾ to 12 hours of sleep per day; your 7-to-12-year-old will probably be at their best with 10 to 11 hours of sleep per day; and even your high school student might need up to 9 ½ .¹

     

For some kid-friendly facts on sleep and why it’s important, check out “What Sleep Is and Why All Kids Need It,” from KidsHealth.org.

    

2. Continue to Get Out in the Sun

    

School means trading long days in the great outdoors for six hours or more sitting at a desk in a hermitically sealed germ factory. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration. I hope. Still, our children do give up some serious sun time when school starts. If we are not vigilant, this means they start to miss out on their daily dose of the “sunshine vitamin”, vitamin D.

    

Why worry? We already knew that vitamin D plays an important role in calcium absorption, the development of healthy bones and creation of a strong immune system. New research suggests that it might also help protect against serious conditions such as some cancers, type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis.²

    

Take an hour after school each day to get the whole family outdoors and read more about the sunshine vitamin in, “Are You and Your Family Getting Enough Vitamin D?”

 

3. Stay Active

 

It’s no wonder that many kids (mine included), when asked to choose their favorite subject in school, select “RECESS.” Sitting at a desk for hours on end is contrary to human nature. Our bodies are made for movement.

      

Here’s the rub: My fifth grader gets twenty minutes of recess each day; my seventh grader gets none at all. Ensuring that your child gets adequate, daily exercise (60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity³) might take a little planning.

    

Check with your school. When (how often and for how long) does your child get some sort of physical education during the school week? Are there after-school programs in which they can participate? My younger son just joined his school’s running club.

    

Here is where organized sports can be your friend. Even if you child is not into soccer or football, look for other options. (Tennis, anyone?) The key here is to get your exercise scheduled into your family’s weekly routine.

    

4. Serve Up the Fruits and Vegetables

     

A healthy diet is a great preventive care strategy for you and your kids. Unfortunately, school lunches – despite the efforts of many communities and committees – provide less than perfect nutrition for our children. The first food group to risk extinction? Fruits and vegetables, of course.

    

Especially vegetables.

     

I would suggest adding healthy snacks to your child’s lunch bag, but I’ve seen too many moldy apples hidden in the bottom of my own sons’ backpacks to think this is a reliable option. Instead, make a concentrated effort to serve more fruits and veggies at the meals you control: Breakfast and dinner.

    

Healthy families plan ahead. Be creative and persistent. You might find some helpful ideas in,“How to Get Your Kids Excited About Vegetables (Really!)”

    

5. Prepare for Cold and Flu Season

     

Remember my earlier comment about hermitically sealed germ factories? The term “germ incubator” might have been more accurate. Or “germ dispersal institution.”

    

Regardless of terminology, I regret to report that my children brought home their first cold of the season, after only eight days in the classroom. They kindly shared it with me; I am finishing off a box of tissues as I type this.

    

Woohoo.

    

We’ve had some pretty serious discussions in our household, about how germs spread and why it’s not nice to make mommy sick. Try to get your family ahead of the germ curve: Check out, “Healthy Family: How to Make Your Children Flu-Resistant”.

      

We’re going to read it a couple more times, ourselves. Here’s wishing you and your family a happy, healthy school year!

    

    

Related Posts:

    

For more thoughts on the whole back to school thing, try “Back to School Tips for Conscious Families” and “Are You Ready for Back to School?”

     

Sources:

   

1 Breus, PhD, Michael J. “How Much Sleep Do Children Need?” WebMD.

    

2 DeNoon, Daniel J. "Supplement Your Knowledge of Vitamin D" WebMD.

    

3 “Kids and Exercise,” KidsHealth.org.