Are My Kids Healthy?

 

A common question I get in my office is “are my kids healthy?” This is an incredibly important, yet loaded question. Every parent wants their child to have the best shot at life and health, as we know, is critical. The measure of health is different for everyone, but professionally and personally I believe that health is not merely the absence of disease.

Setting up your kids, your teens and yourself towards health means more than simply treating symptoms and conditions. Instead, we aim for health. Recently however, I have seen an influx of unhealthy kids, most frequently teenagers. Whether it be from lack of exercise, poor diet or simply excessive stress levels, teenagers tend to be the worst perpetrators when it comes to unhealthy behaviours.

So what do we do?

We watch our babies, toddlers and young children closely to make sure they are getting play time, exercise, and proper nutrition. We often tend to take a more hands off approach as the kids approach teen years because this can lead to lessons in both independence and responsibility.  However, we can’t just expect them to intuitively know what good choices really are. Even though a 15-year old can make their own lunch, are they packing the right food? Even though your 16-year old can drive themselves to soccer practice, are they getting enough daily exercise? In order to confidently answer these questions, we have to make sure they have the right information and be led by a positive example.

Nutrition, exercise and stress are the three indicators of health that we are considering today. Understanding that starting to teach kids these values as young as possible

Teaching kids and teens proper nutrition is incredibly difficult. Teens will often look for easy access food, usually in the form of high processed junk food and sugar. This includes fast food, pop, chips, chocolate bars, candy,  and energy drinks. (See my post here on the dangers of energy drinks for teens http://drmarleelameris.blogspot.ca/2014/09/truth-behind-energy-drinks.html ). These foods are not only bad for digestion, cellular repair and neurological development, they can even stress the immune system. The kids need less sugary, caffeinated drinks and instead need to increase their intake of water. Coupled with lack of sleep, high levels of stress, rapid growth spurts and drastic hormonal changes, improper nutrition can lead to unhealthy kids.

Exercise is another hard fought battle amongst teenagers in particular. Regular exercise and movement is crucial for cardiac function, motor skills training and neurological development. It is recommended that kids get 30 minutes of exercise daily and teenagers get one hour of moderate exercise daily. This pales in comparison to how much activity our kids are actually getting, particularly if the students aren’t in sports or don’t participate in gym class. Paired with the increasing number of screen time hours and poor nutrition, a lack of exercise is the leading cause of obesity and unhealthy behaviours in our kids. We also need to lead by example though. We need to not only encourage this positive behaviour but participate as well.

Stress is the third unhealthy behaviour that is rampant among kids and teenagers. With increased levels of anxiety and depression amongst kids nowadays, teaching stress relief and coping mechanisms are more crucial than ever. We need to empower our kids, particularly our teens, to take responsibility for their stress levels and to come up with healthy coping mechanisms. Whether it be exercise, meditation, talk therapy, massage, deep breathing or even just taking a break, dealing with stress in a healthy manner is a crucial life skill to teach our teens. This also prevents the inclination to turn towards more dangerous, unhealthy behaviours, such as drinking or drugs, to deal with situations. Also, proper sleep and limited screen time will help reduce the physical and mental stress that tends to plague kids nowadays.

Teenagers need our guidance and support even more at this stage in development. By teaching and enforcing positive habits and behaviours, we are able to set up our kids for the best possible future, in which they play an active role in positive decision making.