Is it really September already?! Believe it or not, we are here again and it is time (hopefully) for children to go back to school!
As such I wanted to take this week to focus on some general health tips for our children and in particular around their posture and well being.
It goes without saying that the health of our children is the most important thing in the world to us, and while much of what they do is out of our control and it would be impossible to wrap them in cotton wool all day, there are some simple things we can do to help our children and give them the best start in life.
As you know I like to focus on the three key areas of health namely, physical, chemical, and emotional. So, what I thought I would do is give one TOP TIP for each of these areas to make just three simple steps we can all start tomorrow to help the health of our children.
1. Physical
The big one when it comes to physical health is POSTURE. We all see that image of the typical teenager, head down and slouching, and we know it is ‘not very good’ for them but do we know the impact a ‘text neck’ posture can have?
You see the neck is not just holding our head up, it is supporting the spinal cord and delivering blood supply to the brain. A prolonged forward head posture such as the ‘text neck’ has been suggested that it may cause strain on the spinal cord and it may even reduce blood flow to the brain. This could result in a reduction of a person’s mental and physical capabilities. Therefore, it is something we should take seriously and there are just two main areas to focus on.
The first is the backpack or ruck sack. The fashionable slung low approach will cause a heavy weight to counterbalance, and therefore the head will automatically lean further forward. The trick here is to have the straps on the backpack tighter so that it sits higher up near the shoulders and this will reduce the stress on the neck.
The second issue is the omnipresent mobile phone. Simply reduce the time on this and if your child is going to use it, try to encourage them to hold it higher up so they are looking straight forward and not down.
2. Chemical
Sugar! A highly addictive and harmful thing for a child (or adult) in terms of their diet is sugar. The best way to combat this is to increase the ‘good’ fats in our diet and eat a more filling and nutritious breakfast. Cereal unfortunately does not cut it. Full of wheat and sugar, cereal will cause an insulin spike and a rapid fatigue later in the morning, normally when our children are out of sight and left to their own devices … sweets and fizzy pop are the go to.
The solution here is to have protein and fats at breakfast to improve how the body can process sugar and hopefully keep your child fuller for longer, therefore avoiding the self-indulgent treats. I would suggest eggs, fish, cheese, or avocados at breakfast to get the best benefit.
3. Emotional
This is a tough one, growing up is full of emotional challenges, peer pressure and more recently isolation. While we can not protect against these, we can implement simple daily practices to reduce the emotional burden or open up issues and not bury them.
For this we need to think about the emotions; stress and anxiety being the most common. The only way to combat this is to enhance the opposite emotion of gratitude (being thankful). My top tip for this is to have a routine each day where the family ask each other to name and describe three things they are grateful for that day. And at least once a week sit down to dinner as a family and openly discuss life’s trials and tribulations. The key to this one is not the child being vulnerable and open, but the parents leading by example and having the courage to be vulnerable and open themselves.
I hope this provides you and your loved ones some quality advice and that you look forward to normality returning as we go back to school this week.
Yours in health
Tom
