Raising Healthy Kids

As parents, we are always trying to make the best choices for our children. Being a parent is one of the hardest jobs which can be very joyful yet daunting at times. We are bombarded with tons of things that are bad or toxic for our kids, but what should we do???

Well, I have come up with a simple list to help us all out!
 

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• Natural Birth vs. Medicated Birth
• Breastfeeding vs. Bottle feeding
• Vaccines vs. No Vaccines
• Organic Meat vs. Meat with Antibiotics & Hormones
• Medical Approaches vs. Holistic Approaches 
• Anything you question… research it

2. Nourish Them
Feed your children healthy whole foods, not foods loaded with artificial colorings and flavors, preservatives, or other things. Think of your newborn baby, protecting them, making sure people wash their hands before holding your new bundle…. now it’s 2, 5, 7,  10+ years later. Are you still taking the same precautions to protect their health? What are you feeding them? Read the labels and find out what the ingredients are on packaged foods!

• Feed them Organic & Raw when possible, here are some examples of snacks:

• Fruit Kabobs- Cheddar Cheese, cubed Toothpicks or Kabob Sticks Pieces of Fruit cut into cubes
• Antioxidant Trail Mix- 1 c. pecans, 1 c. almonds, 1/2 c. raisins, 1/2 c. dark chocolate chips (unsweetened, 1 c. dried apple slices, sea salt, sprinkled cinnamon, sprinkled. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
• Green Shakes- fruits, greens, yogurt, ice & blend… yum!
• Homemade Hummus & veggies
• Homemade snacks instead of the packaged stuff

3. Spend Quality Time with Them
An important factor to your child’s emotional health for you to spend time with them. More than anything else you can give them or do for your children, what they need most is time with you. A friend of mine is a server at a restaurant and she wrote this on her facebook page this past weekend, “I will try to keep this positive- parents you are not teaching your children social graces by putting a portable dvd player in front of them or allowing them to play games while out to dinner. They should be learning how to converse with the wait staff and even better- you! They can’t learn how to interact with the public from behind a screen and maybe they could learn a little something about manners if you would use the terms please and thank you a bit more freely.”  Quality time not only helps them to learn how to act & interact in public but also reassures them that you love them!

• Tell a story
• Plan a picnic
• Have your kids help make dinner
• Game Night
• Play outside 

4. Teach Them
An important part of our job as being a parent is to teach our children to understand the why in life. (although sometimes “because I said so” is enough, hehe) A child might understand the do’s and don’ts but if they don’t understand the why then when it comes to tough situations and you aren’t there to help them make decisions they might make the wrong ones. It comes down to them understanding why. 

• Why do I eat healthy?
• Why don’t I eat ______?
• Why I should be respectful?
• Why should I obey?

5. Get Active with Them
With tv, video games, and hand-held media devises it’s so easy to throw physical activity out the window but it is so important to get active with them! Not only is getting active with them spending quality time with them, it is teaching them the importance of taking care of their body! Also, exercise is known reduce health risks like cardiovascular problems.  Exercise also aides in building overall strength and helps kids sleep better as well as reduces their stress levels.