What parent doesn't want their baby to grow up to be a healthy child? Parents and good parenting play an important role in the health and development of the Little One. Therefore, it is important to educate and familiarize children with healthy living from a young age.
Bad living habits such as infrequent exercise and unhealthy eating patterns can have a negative impact on children's health and growth and development. For example, the habit of eating high-calorie foods, but rarely doing physical activity can affect long-term health. Children can develop health problems such as obesity, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes.
Come on, Mother, invite your baby to learn to live healthy so that his body is always fit and healthy.
Teaching Healthy Living Habits to Children
It takes time and patience to encourage children to get used to living a healthy life. The earlier good habits are implemented, the more likely your baby will be a healthy child. For this reason, the role of parents is needed to build these good habits.
When Mom and Dad teach children a healthy lifestyle, don't forget the following things:
- Become a rolemodelIn addition to providing understanding, the best way to invite your baby to live a healthy life is to be an example. Children will imitate what their parents did. Therefore, show your child that you are diligent in exercising and eating healthy foods consistently. Giving messages through actions will be more memorable for children than just orders and nagging.
- Realistic
When establishing healthy living habits for children, it is advisable for parents to remain realistic. Realize that the good effects of a healthy life will be felt in the future, not happen instantly.
It's better to start with simple but consistent steps than to focus on big changes in a short period of time. For example, invite children to cycle every afternoon or on weekends, you can also invite children to cook healthy food instead of ordering ready-to-eat food.
- Involve all family members
Cultivating healthy habits will be easier if the whole family is also involved. Therefore, this program should not only be given to children. Involve the whole family. This can be started from having dinner together with a healthy menu and exercising together.
Physical Activity for Healthy Children
One of the conditions for realizing a healthy child is to make the little one move diligently. Some of the things below can be done:
- Limit the time children enjoy entertainment through TV, computers, video games, or other devices to two hours per day. Provide motivation so that children want to do physical activity regularly.
- Encourage your child to do between half an hour and an hour of physical activity every day. Parents and families should also participate in sports together.
- Balance your calorie intake with the activities you do.
- Simple physical activity in the form of household activities can also be done to create a healthy family. Cleaning the house, walking the pet, and gardening are all good examples of activities to burn calories. In addition, you can also just take a leisurely walk in the park, ride a bicycle, or play hide and seek.
In addition to exercising, don't forget to get your child used to drinking lots of water, consuming fresh vegetables and fruit, and avoiding foods and drinks that contain a lot of sugar and salt. You can invite your child to read food and drink labels so that he learns, understands, and is aware of what is good to eat and what is not.
Getting used to good activities so that children are healthy, of course, takes time and patience. If necessary, you can consult about the health and development of children to a pediatrician.
