Ways to Avoid Common Health Risks for Children
Your kids’ childhood is meant to be a wonderful phase in their lives. They should be exploring life and their environment and experiencing many amazing moments. However, this is also a time when they’re most susceptible to diseases and illnesses that can disrupt their lives.
As a parent, it’s your job to make sure you are prepared for all the common health risks for children, but that is often easier said than done. It’s challenging to know everything and be fully prepared. That’s why all parents need some guidance at one point or another.
This article aims to inform parents about the many health risks they should be aware of, and how to keep their children safe. You can use the information we provide here to ensure that your children are healthy and safe at all times, while also teaching them to properly take care of themselves.
General Health
We kick off this guide by discussing your children’s general health. When it comes to the most common health risks for children, their general health is important. You need to have a family physician that you visit regularly.
This physician will know all your children’s allergies, the state of their bodies, and their medical history. If a medical problem does pop up, they will know the best way to treat your children safely and effectively. Your children’s nutrition is part of their general health, so you have to ensure they have a balanced diet that provides them with all the proteins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, and vitamins they need to be healthy.
It’s also essential that your children are vaccinated regularly from a young age to protect them against serious diseases and viruses like polio, rotavirus, whooping cough, and measles.
For your children’s general health, you need to ensure they practice good hygiene as well. Staying clean will help prevent the transmission of viruses and germs. By practicing good hygiene, your kids won’t get as many ear and skin infections or get exposed to viruses, which are quite common among children.
Dental
Dental health is important and it’s something that you have to take care of from an early age. You must take your children to visit a pediatric dentist as soon as possible and return regularly. You have to ensure that your children’s baby teeth stay healthy and avoid decay and other dental problems. Teaching children from a young age how to practice good oral health will equip them with the knowledge they need to take good care of their teeth for the rest of their lives.
Start teaching your children to brush their teeth properly and regularly and also show them how to floss the right way. They should begin to brush their teeth at around two or three. Poor dental hygiene can lead to a myriad of other health problems such as strokes, heart disease, and endocarditis.
In the Home
The home environment plays an important role in protecting youngsters against common health risks for children. Many factors should be considered if you want to keep your children safe at home. Your house should be a safe haven for your family, but it can pose many dangers and, as a parent, it’s crucial that you’re aware of these dangers and do what you can to prevent exposing your kids to them. For example, you need to protect your children by keeping toxic chemicals like pesticides away from them and ensuring they are not within reach of curious little hands. Always read labels and teach your children to reach the labels as well.
Store your food and trash in closed containers that are far from each other and ensure that pests don’t make their way into these containers. Just make sure you don’t put traps or bait where your children can reach them. Even the water in your home can pose a health risk, so you may want to consider installing a quality water filtration system. You should wash all fruit and vegetables under clean, running water before you eat or cook them.
Never let people smoke in your home or car because secondhand smoke is harmful to your children’s lungs, blood vessels, and heart. Also, try to keep your home as clean as possible by removing dust and mold as much as you can. They can trigger allergies and asthma attacks.
Security
Sadly, we live in a day and age when keeping our children safe has become far more complicated and challenging. Home invasions and robberies are not uncommon, and it can be tough to keep our families protected.
Although we may not consider security as one of the common health risks for children, it still affects their quality of life and happiness. That’s why you need to invest in appropriate security for your home and area. If high-quality alarm systems and cameras might be necessary, it’s good to make it an investment.
If you have an open yard, you could consider hiring a fence contractor to close off your space. Many families appreciate the privacy and security a fenced-in yard offers. It also makes it easier to allow your children to play freely, knowing that they’re most likely safe in the backyard without needing to be monitored. This has the added benefit of allowing pets to play freely and get fresh air without getting out into the street, which can take a lot of pressure off a busy parent.
You should also consider how safe the areas are where your children walk. For example, if your kids walk to and from school, you need to be sure that the routes are secure. If they often walk to the shops, these routes should be known to you as well. You can even make planning the routes a fun activity for your children that also teaches them about being safe when they’re not in your home.
Outside the Home
The outside of your home also holds a lot of common health risks for children, and you’ll have to make sure they’re safe while playing outside. Pest control is one of the most important elements to keep in mind because you don’t want your kids to be bitten by rats or exposed to mice with fleas and the like.
If you have a pool, you need to use only safe cleaning products and make sure the pool is securely closed off when there is no supervision. When your children play outside, make sure they have easy ways to stay hydrated if they’re spending a lot of time in the sun. Also, teach them to always apply sunscreen, preferably the waterproof kind. Keep an eye on the weather so you know when it’s best to get the children to spend time indoors out of direct sunlight.
Do your best to keep your yard free of ticks because these insects are known for causing Lyme Disease, and that’s not something you want to expose your children to. If the kids play in grassy or wooded areas, make them take a thorough shower and put on clean clothes when they get home.
Activity
It is an unfortunate reality that one of the most common health risks for children these days is a lack of activity. With mobile devices and gaming sets offering so much to do indoors, many children prefer to avoid any activity that would see them move around a lot. Try your best to get your children involved in sports and physical activities that they enjoy! It’s good for their bodies as well as their minds. Active children are better at building strong bones and muscles and reducing the symptoms of anxiety and depression. It’s operative that they find activities they don’t feel pressured into doing as well. Forcing a child to run will give them negative associations with exercise for their entire lives. Allowing a child to explore physical activity and find something they think is fun or interesting can create a love that lasts a lifetime.
Children who are active also sleep better, which means they’ll be more rested and perform better in school. Being very active can help create a healthy sleeping habit because they’re too worn out to stay up past midnight. When they have good sleeping habits, your children will be happier overall.
On the other hand, children who are quite active and enjoy sports may suffer injuries that can lead to them losing interest in sports altogether. To avoid this and keep their bodies in good shape, you should consider reliable sports physical therapy after any injury your children suffer.
Learning
When it comes to the young mind, there are also common health risks for children and their learning journeys. For example, having poor eyesight but not realizing it can severely affect a child’s performance in school, but is so avoidable.
Make sure you visit your local eye doctor regularly so any issues with your family’s eyes can be picked up early. This kind of doctor’s visit is as important as visiting your GP often to ensure you’re in good health. Keeping tabs on your children’s health will help them perform better in school.
To ensure that your children are learning as they should, you should spend time with them discussing what they’ve been taught and how they feel about it. Let them feel important when they share their learning journey with you and always tell them that you’re proud of them and support them. Try to instill a positive attitude towards learning from a young age so that your children enjoy school and education. If they feel good about learning, they’ll be keener to study and perform well in school and academic activities.
Pet Health
You may not think so and may not like hearing it, but your pets may pose some common health risks for children even though they don’t mean to. It’s really important that you take good care of your pets so they don’t expose your children to diseases that animals can communicate to humans.
Fleas and ticks may seem harmless but bites can cause serious headaches, fever, and flu-like symptoms. So make sure you have quality pet medical care and that you get all the pet vaccines necessary.
Keeping your pets healthy will avoid any health risks to your children because there are fewer chances of the kids getting the diseases and infections that animals can pass to humans. On that note, you should also keep your animals’ litter trays and food/water away from your children, just to be safe.
Mental Health
Your children’s mental health is just as important as their physical health and if neglected, as it often is, can have many repercussions on their lives. It can affect your physical health and lead to headaches, fatigue, and even digestive problems.
To promote good mental health for your children, you need to show them that their family loves them unconditionally.
You need to help them build high self-esteem and have good self-confidence so they don’t get anxious or nervous as easily. Praise them when they achieve something, and encourage them when they fail, which is something they’ll have to face at one point or another. Also, show them that your love doesn’t depend on their achievements.
Allow them to spend enough time with their peers as well as away from them on their own so they’re not scared to be alone or in social environments. Give your children a safe and stable environment where they feel secure no matter what is happening on the outside or in the “real world”. Your home must be your child’s sanctuary. And you must always be there to support them and give them advice.
But you must not forget to teach your child discipline and introduce rules into their lives. This prepares them for society and helps them learn to have self-control. The balance between the two is the hardest part, and one that many parents fail to fully grasp. The key is communication, and understanding that you and your child are both human. Talking about how you feel, how actions make other people feel, and helping them form a base level of care for themselves and others can shape them into strong and understanding individuals.
Stay Vigilant About Common Health Risks for Children
Taking care of your children is a full-time job that doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Even if it did, your work as a parent wouldn’t be all that much easier because every child is an individual with a different personality. You need a different approach for each of them.
With that said, the advice shared here with you will help you keep your children safe and prevent dangerous situations from taking place. While common health risks for children can’t be avoided altogether, you can do your part to ensure your children’s safety and teach them about them at the same time.
Use this advice to raise your children to be wonderful, healthy humans that can take good care of themselves and live long, happy lives!