4 Tips To Keep Your Children Healthy At Childcare
No, you can’t vacuum-wrap your child in bubble-wrap in order to protect them from every potential illness and injury. But there are a number of things you can do to reduce the risks when you send them off to childcare. Obviously, a lot of the responsibility for this lies with the staff and management of whichever childcare facility you trust with your children’s well being. There are many ways they can play their part, including hiring a professional cleaning company like AMC Cleaning to maintain the cleanliness of the premises. But that doesn’t get you off the hook! You can pitch in to protect your child’s health while they’re in childcare by following the below tips.
Teach Good Hygiene Practices
Simply by being in a room with other children, your child will be exposed to all manner of diseases both mild and potentially severe, so the best thing you can do is ensure that your child knows the basics… like not to cough in other people’s faces. Be sure to teach them to use a disposable handkerchief and be sure that they actually get rid of it after blowing their nose. Teach the importance of regular hand sanitizing but don’t go overboard; too much emphasis or scare tactics could leave your child with an unhealthy obsession with cleaning. At some point they will get sick – it’s inevitable, so it’s pointless to make your child terrified of germs.
Healthy Eating
It’s a well-recognized fact that people who eat a healthy and diverse diet have stronger immune systems and are therefore less prone to sickness. Make sure that your child eats a good breakfast before going to childcare and make sure that their lunch is a healthy one full of fruits, vegetables, grains and other well-balanced snacks. Be sure to consider your child’s individual dietary requirements when packing their lunchbox.
Keep It Fun
Scientists around the world are discovering the benefits of being happy in regards to health. A happy child is often a healthy child and vice versa. Being happy produces chemicals within the body that fight off disease, so take measures to ensure the emotional well being of your children. Create a positive home environment and check daily if they enjoyed their time at childcare. The rule of ‘keeping it fun’ also applies to teaching your children about hygiene; if you do this in an engaging and exciting way, the lessons will certainly stick better than if you give them stern lectures on the topic.
Don’t Overreact
If you catch your child playing with dirt or with a mouthful of grass, don’t behave like the end of the world is nigh. Kids will be kids, after all. An overreaction to something like this could instil in your children an irrational fear of being adventurous and trying new things. Plus, a bit of dirt or grass never hurt anybody; coming into contact with foreign substances is actually an important part of your child’s immune system development.
What steps do you take to keep your children healthy at childcare? Post any tips or stories you have in the comments below.
