Getting your child ready for school is more than just buying a couple of school supplies. Have you considered your child’s health as you prepare for her going back to school? I think your child’s health should have your attention, especially with the approaching inclement weather. It is important to take precautionary measures to secure your child for a healthy year.
There is another flu season around, and your child is expected to be immunized. You also need to take other vital health checks to confirm your child is not vulnerable to any health condition. You need to get her well prepared to withstand any unexpected change in weather. In this article, we are going to focus on some very important health safety issues as your child returns to school. Some of the things we are going to consider will include Personal Hygiene, Food, Vaccines, Health Insurance, Physical health, and Lifestyle.
Personal hygiene for your child
Teach your child how to keep simple and effective personal hygiene. Doing this is essential for protection against contagious infections like the flu. Your child will be expected to mix and play with other kids from different backgrounds, to keep a simple and effective personal hygiene will help her avoid infections. Here are simple hygiene tips:
• Maintain regular washing of hands: Teach your child the importance of hand washing after every activity like after going to the toilet and after playing outdoors. After coughing and sneezing or blowing her nose and after touching something dirty etc.
• Maintain regular bathing: A healthy child is expected to play, and it does not matter what kind of play. But as your child plays, she is exposed to germs and other dirt which could cause skin and other problems. Regular bathing will help to avoid germs.
• Maintain regular dental hygiene: Regular brushing off her teeth ensures she’s free from dental problems.
To impart these habits, try to use storytelling, video modeling, books and games with hygiene topics to teach your child the importance of keeping simple but effective hygiene in every day.
Eating healthy food
Eating well and healthy foods will help her stay healthy. You know your child, so use your knowledge of her to prepare her diets for her return to school. Avoid junk foods that may compromise her healthy living. You can make it easy for yourself if you stock up on healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy proteins and teach her the importance of good food. When you child is trained to eat good food, she won’t develop the habit for junks when she becomes an adult.
Get vaccinated
Has your child been immunized? There is already a call for everyone to gets vaccinated against the flu. You need to take care of vaccination before returning to school; this is very important! Although many schools will require immunization before enrollment, you do not have to wait for this to happen. You need to take necessary steps to do what is right to protect your child against dangers of flu infections. Find out the closest vaccination center nearby and fully protected your child.
Apart from the flu vaccine, have your doctor check your child for any hidden health issue and make sure to follow as advised.
Get health insurance cover
Apart from an outbreak of known disease like the flu, there are other health dangers lurking around. Children have to play, and an accident could happen, do you have proper insurance cover for medical emergencies? Getting updated on your family’s health insurance will give you needed peace of mind knowing your child’s safety at school is covered.
Physical health
Have you checked your child’s physical health status? You need to have her checked for good Vision, Hearing and general health conditions to be sure she’s ready to return to school. You need to take care of any problem immediately before she returns to school.
You also need to encourage your child to engage in physical health activities. Doing exercises would ensure your child stays active and healthy during the cold season. Talk to your child’s school’s physical health handler on available programs for your child and enroll her into guided physical health activities at school.
Keeping a healthy lifestyle
Helping your child keep a healthy lifestyle will relieve you of endless worries and heartbreaks. Most times, children follow in their friends footsteps, this happens when parents do not make conscious efforts to impart the right culture early enough. Teach her the importance of prioritizing her homework and stay within tolerable social life activities. She needs to learn the importance of eaten and sleeping at the right times. As parents, you need to take tab on these activities to make sure the focus is balanced. Here are a few things to consider and get your child to observe before she’s back to school:
• Stop phone addiction: For her health and general wellbeing, try to discourage her excessive use of a phone. It will help her attend to her homework, eat, play and sleep at the right and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
• Sleep well and at the right time: Sleep is good for your child’s health. Make sure to establish a reasonable time to sleep for her. According to National Sleep Foundation Sleep guidelines, the following summary is the recommended sleep for children of different ages:
From buying school supplies to preparing your child for another successful school time, back to school health can be very stressful for you and your kid. Unless you spend the time to prepare well for your child’s resumption, the continued troubles for not doing so can be traumatizing.
You need to remember that you have other responsibilities, and you don’t want to go through them with an unsettled mind. Therefore, paying due attention to your child’s safe return to school is a task you can’t afford to fail.
