Helping Your Children Form Good Health Habits

By Elizabeth Summers / January 5, 2018 / No comments
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You are probably familiar with the Bible passage that reads “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” During childhood people form a variety of habits that sometimes stick with them for the rest of their lives. Helping your children understand the importance of good health habits and then helping them create them in their own lives can be a huge benefit!

Here are a few things that help children form good habits while they are young.

Regular Exercise

Most children enjoy being outside and running around. It may not be difficult when they are quite young to encourage them to be active. At this early phase, it’s important to help them understand the value of being active. This can help as they get older and perhaps a little less inclined to physical activity to keep moving.

As a parent, teacher or other form of guardian, take children outside and play with them. Teach them games and other activities that they could play without your assistance in the future. They can then share the games with friends.

As they age, encourage them to pursue hobbies that promote good health and physical exercise.

Thoroughly Washing Their Hands

Teach the children the importance of washing their hands to prevent the spread of illness. If a child truly understands why something is so important they are more likely to willingly participate.

Be sure to teach them that simple applying soap to hands or even worse, just getting them wet is not enough. It’s important to move the soap around and apply pressure to remove dirt, bacteria and germs.

I observed once as a mother who happened to also be a nurse helped her child wash her hands while singing the alphabet to make sure they spent enough time scrubbing.

Taking Proper Care of Their Teeth

When they are very young you will have to help them brush their teeth. Once they get old enough it’s okay to let them brush their own first then you should brush their teeth as well to guarantee it is done well enough. As time goes on you can be less and less involved but be sure to visually check on occasion to make sure they are brushing thoroughly enough.

Make sure that it becomes a consistent part of their daily routine. Hawley Lane Dental a dentist out of Stratford, CT has created a brushing chart to help children be more excited about brushing their teeth daily.

Teach them how to floss and other important aspects of proper dental care as well. Helping them establish these habits early will improve the likelihood they maintain them as they grow into adulthood.

Also, develop the habit of taking them on check-ups to an iCare Fairfax Family Dentist (else, one closer to you) on a regular basis. This is another healthy practice as they are likely to be more conscious about their oral health and hygiene once they’re older.

You ought to keep track of their dental health as they wouldn’t know what dental problems will be or feel like. In fact, they might be dealing with medical conditions like Bruxism – an involuntary habit of grinding and clenching teeth while sleeping. This could aggravate dental health and lead to the onset of other problems and affect jaw structure over time. And it is only with the help of a dentist that you can completely correct such an issue; he or she can prescribe an appropriate Bruxism Mouthguard, massages, and other methods necessary.

Teaching children to inculcate the habit of complete oral care can take them a long way in taking care of themselves overall. It will also help them understand health concerns better, long term speaking.

Eating Well

There are foods that have more nutritional value than others. Encourage your children to eat these foods and to understand the importance of doing so. Teach them the importance of eating a variety of different foods to receive as many different types of vitamins and minerals as possible. Also teach them to wisely choose the portions of foods that they consume. Helping them understand this will help them not waste food but also be an important principle as they grow older.

Good health requires good health practices. Teach them the things in this article and be sure to use them in your own life. Showing by example will be an extremely effective method to help them do so likewise.