Simple strategies for a healthy first five years (and beyond)

Dr Wendy Hunter, MD

I’m a parent, so I know what it’s like to feel bombarded by information about how to keep our children healthy. I’m also a pediatrician, so I’m challenged to keep up with the latest health trends. Through all the social media and parent gossip, I’ve found that the simplest habits, like washing your hands and getting plenty of sleep, have been so helpful that my kids haven’t missed school for a sick day in years! Here are my top simple strategies that have the greatest impact on keeping kids healthy.

Read every day

Reading helps children learn language in ways they can’t through speaking alone. Choose books with rhymes; they are fun to read and develop language skills. Since I don’t speak like Dr. Seuss at home I made it a point to read rhyming books to my kids. Reading also builds vocabulary. In fact, children are exposed to 50 percent more unique words in books than in television shows or adults’ conversations.

Let kids choose books they like and let them repeat their favorites every night if they want. Kids learn new words better when they are familiar with the story. And be a good role model by letting your kids see you take time to read for yourself!

Encourage fruits and veggies

Eating 5 servings of fruits and veggies every day is heart-healthy, protects against cancer and prevents obesity.

Don’t be discouraged if your child doesn’t eat a food the first time you offer it. When kids reject a food it is often due to unfamiliarity, not true dislike. So offer the same food many times. Young infants may eat a food after one or two tries, but older kids may need up to 15 tries before they will like a vegetable.

Teach hand washing

Our hands are the number one source for spreading infection. We may blame our pets, sneezing kids and dirty shoes, but the truth is that our hands are to blame.

We transfer germs from our hands into our body when we touch our eyes, mouth, or nose. And kids touch their face a whole lot: a 2002 study found that 2 year- olds touch their face 42 times an hour. And younger kids average 81 times per hour! While you can’t control where kids poke their little mitts. You can reduce the number of germs on their hands. Certainly, door handles and toys are germ reservoirs, so wipe those down frequently. And, of course, since the bathroom is a germ-haven, teach kids to wash their hands after using the toilet. But there’s also the kitchen, which contain some of the most contaminated surfaces in the home. So teach your little kitchen helper to wash their hands between food-preparation tasks too.

Brush teeth with fluoride

Healthy teeth mean more than just a pretty smile. Even mild tooth decay affects kids’ health by causing pain, interrupted sleep, and poor eating. It can also lead to more serious problems. In one extreme case, I had an 11-year old patient who spent a week in the hospital for a dental infection. Fortunately, simply brushing protects teeth. The fluoride in toothpaste builds and maintains the protective enamel on teeth after they come out of the gums. Teeth need to “bathe” in direct contact with fluoride for its magic to work. So as soon as a child has teeth, brush them with fluoride toothpaste at least twice a day. And avoid so-called “training” toothpaste, because it does not contain fluoride.

Observe a regular bedtime

Insufficient sleep causes hyperactivity and worsens school performance, according to a study published in Pediatrics in 2013. In the study, children between 3 and 7 years old experienced more hyperactivity and emotional difficulties when they did not have a regular sleep schedule.

Kids need far more sleep than many parents realize. Toddlers need 12-14 hours of sleep at night; Pre-school kids need 10-12 hours and after kindergarten (around age 7) kids need 10-11 hours. My advice is to set a regular bedtime routine and stick to it. If you read a book, cuddle and tuck them in at roughly the same time each night, kids will find their natural rhythm and sleep the right number of hours.

Protect from the sun

While sun exposure damages skin at any age, sunburn during childhood is particularly risky. The earlier in life that skin cells are damaged, the greater the chance of developing skin cancer over a lifetime. Kids’ skin is particularly sensitive to the damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation because their skin has a thinner outer protective layer than adults.

Apply sunscreen any time a child is outside and don’t worry about the toxicity of chemicals in sunscreen, they are far safer than cancer-causing UV radiation! That said, babies under 6 months can absorb these chemicals because they have a very thin outer skin layer. So use clothing and umbrellas to protect infants.

Play Hard

This might be the most surprising piece of advice for raising a healthy kid. But roughhousing is healthy because it develops every aspect of a child’s emotional health.

When children roughhouse with their parents or other kids they learn to adapt to unpredictable situations, deal with minor discomfort and see first-hand that failure is temporary. As an added benefit, the spontaneous nature of roughhousing wires connections between neurons that help with being a more flexible thinker. Even very young kids benefit from play. Go ahead and toss your child in the air and catch them. It builds trust!

For more health tips listen to Dr. Hunter’s podcast The Pediatrician Next Door