Summer time, yippee! Yes, it’s that season of the year when your kids feel like they are under a new sun with joy and excitement coming in leaps and bounds. But, will the new sun steal their joy, and health in return? Have you safe planned your child’s summer vacation?
Here’s how you put a sunshade over your child’s summer health.
Summer Health Safety Tips for Kids
You must be planning a vocational trip to a cooler place to avoid your kids from getting exposed to “summer hazards”. Insect bites, dehydration, and hay fever are common hazards which could cause danger to your children’s health and their summer holidays.
Here are a few summer safety tips for your kids to stay healthy and enjoy their summer vacation to the fullest:
a. Beware of uninvited guests:
Mosquitoes, flies, and other insects which enter your house without being invited are numero uno cause of spreading infections among children. So if want to take pleasure of that cool breeze flowing through your windows throughout the hot summer, you should ensure that your window frames bear a standard insect guard mesh to keep away the need of taking a pediatrician’s appointment.
b. Cool your house down:
Overheated houses often cause discomfort to children leading to anxiety, irritation, and displeasure. Find ways to bring down the temperature of your home. If you own an air-conditioner, that’s well and good!
c. Protect from UV rays:
You don’t need to be told how harmful the UV rays are to human skin. Protect your children, especially babies, from harsh sunlight by applying sunscreen creams or lotions on their skin.
d. Keep them hydrated:
While sharing the playground with their friends, your kids may forget or ignore the urge to have water in the heat of excitement. It’s important to see to it that they keep their body hydrated throughout the day to avoid dehydration and associated complications like heat injury, seizures, hypovolemic shock, cerebral edema, etc.
e. Store chemicals out of reach:
This is something to do with you as a parent. Gardening and swimming pool maintenance are common chores carried out during summer. If you have kids at home who roam about and keep exploring such maintenance areas, you may want to keep the cleansers and chemicals away from their reach.
Improve Your Child’s Reading Score over Summer with Self-Select Books
Instead of allowing them to sit glued to the television or computer screen, why not permit your children to choose books by themselves to read over the summer break? A new study concluded that those children who read books of their choice significantly honed their reading skills and disallowed the “summer slide” in reading scores. Other children who did not receive books of their choice did not show any improvement.
The research was conducted in 2013 by the study’s lead author Dr. Erin Kelly and her coworker Dr. C. Andrew Aligne (from University of Rochester) in the elementary schools of Florida with high poverty levels. Upon having attained empirical results, the study continued on a larger platform the following year experimenting 4 classes of students from kindergarten through second grade.
Summer Fruits for Your Kids to Relish
If any season is to be considered apt for tasting a variety of fruits, it would be summer. In this season, you need foods that would gratify your sweet craving and pacify heat stroke, and those would be summer fruits. Besides containing high nutritional value, they carry good amount of water to keep you hydrated under the scorching sun.
Here are top 3 fruits to eat during summer:
a. The “king” fruit:
Let’s start with mango. No matter hard they try, other fruits cannot beat this lip-smacking one that cherishes its possessor with high nutritional and health benefits. Be it preventing diabetes, avoiding macular degeneration, or keeping constipation at bay, mango always supersedes. It is rich in antioxidant compounds, vitamins, pre-biotic dietary fiber, and minerals. This favorite fruit is also studied to fight prostate cancer, skin problems, and cholesterol issues.
b. The “water” fruit:
As rightly titled, watermelon contains 92% of water by weight and is thoroughly blessed with nutrients to simply be listed second to mango among the best summer fruits. It won’t be a surprise if you get addicted to watermelon during summer because its vitamin C and beta carotene content could rejuvenate your body on a very hot day too. Other scientific benefits include vitamin A, vitamin B6, potassium, lycopene, amino acids, and antioxidants.
c. The “belly” fruit:
It’s hard from outside and soft from inside. Can you guess it? Yes, it’s coconut! Packed with fiber and nutrients for curing problems down the belly particularly, this fruit is best benefited from when it is tender. Acid reflux, dehydration, obesity, and acne are easily defeated by its variedly used coconut water.
Keep their Taste Buds Happy with these Tasty Summer Snacks
Did you have a hard time forcing those fruits down your child’s food pipe? Try these healthful summer snacks specifically recommended by dieticians and doctors:
a. Cucumber soup:
It’s cool when it’s eaten cool. Ask any health-conscious person about the significance of vitamin K and C, and he will start preaching about it. This cool and healthy summer snack not only incorporates these vitamins, but also some unmatched cooling effects.
b. Frozen grapes:
62 calories of energy! That’s so satisfying for a “summer suffered” body! If you’ve been toiling under the summer sun, you’d certainly go scarce on energy. Well, you need not worry if you have some black grapes and refrigerator at home.
c. Grilled peaches:
Add a vanilla scoop and chocolate syrup on top and you’ll be good to go.
Kids are kids after all! You can’t twist their arms behind their backs and make them gulp down the health foods or force them to wear a sunscreen to avoid the ill-effects of summer. You need to come down to their level and summer care for them with love and friendship. It’s never too late; keep these tips on your fingertips to let your kids have a great summer.