Everyone admires a healthy kid, at least I do, and kudos to their parents for doing a great job.
Parenthood doesn’t come with a manual so there are different methods to it. A healthy child will grow emotionally strong in a loving and stable environment.
However, I’m sure all parents will agree with me that food is also important in a child’s growth, especially good and well-balanced food.
Stunted growth is associated with unbalanced diet or deficiency in certain nutrients and to avoid that we need to work on food proportioning. Children have a higher need for some certain foods than others;
- Proteins: Commonly known as the ‘body-builder’, it demands a high place in the bodies of children, providing what is needed for fast and healthy growth. Beans, tofu, meat, fish and eggs are foods high in protein
- Vitamins: Fruits and vegetables vitamin rich. Different fruits and veggies provide different vitamins. Oranges are vitamin C rich while Carrots are rich in Vitamin A.
- Minerals: Kids are in dire need of Calcium and iron in their diets and these can be easily gotten from fish, meat and crayfish.
- Water: The place of water can never be emphasized. Kids don’t need to be thirsty before they are given water. Water is like the grease that makes the digestive system run smoothly.
All this foods contain nutrients that will help children grow physically and exponentially increase mental wellness.
However, it should be noted that food is not the only growth factor in kids. The activities children engage in also increase their mental, emotional and physical health.
Children have a lot energy and it needs to be expended. Ever wondered why kids are so restless most of the time? It’s because of that boundless energy!. Some parents make the mistake of trying to curb it when, instead, it could be channeled into something productive like running, dancing, music, sports and so on. An important activity is sleep. Yes, you heard right, don’t take it for granted!
It has been proven that children that partake in such activities not only grow up physically fit but they have increased memory retention and confidence.
Can you imagine that a child who knows how to run scales, read music sheets calculate beats and sleeps well could have serious issues with arithmetic? I doubt and I’m sure you do too.
It’s a given then, healthy children are judged not just by physical attributes alone but mental and emotional strength and it’s been concluded that both food, play and activities greatly affect a child’s health. So let us all decide today that our children will be affected positively.
Featured Image Courtesy: Ebony Magazine