31/08/2020
What can keep your Kids Healthy during lockdown and when at home?
For over 5 months now, kids are at home without access to playing outdoors, meeting their friends & attending school. Unknowingly staying locked up indoors can be stressful for children and can have significant impact on their development.
The pandemic has also left parents scrambling for alternatives of how to keep their kids occupied. Most of them are worried that the new habits their children are likely to form could last much longer than the lockdown.
Lots of TV time, no classes, and a fridge full of food, kids have easy access to junk and unhealthy food. The best way to do it is to engage your kids in a productive manner while paying close attention to their lifestyle and diet.
While it may take some time for things to get back to normal, there are ways parents can help them stay healthy. Your kids can only eat what you buy, so if you are buying pantry full of snacks, they will eat them all day and night since these foods are comforting, addicting and hard to stop eating.
Turning quarantine into a goal-setting opportunity for developing healthy habits could be a key. What can parents do?
Make a family plan. Plan ahead for meals, plan for exercise, plan for junk food- give them junk food once a week or once in two weeks.
Make a grocery list and plan the meals for the week. Make a list of snacks: healthy and unhealthy
On the healthy snacks list:
Fruits, vegetables with a dip (homemade hummus), nuts (handful), light popcorn (not ready packets), lower-sugar yogurts, jowar puffs- home roasted, makhana – home roasted, homemade smoothies and shakes without sugar (added fruit gives enough sweetness), boiled/ cooked sprouts chaat, mumra with chana bhel, boiled corn, homemade dryfruit khajoor ladoos, healthy muffins, chapatti nachos (homemade), and many more.
keep sugary drinks out of the house—soda, sweet tea, fruit juice, punch, lemonade, sports drinks. Instead give them coconut water, lime water, kokum juice, buttermilk or lassi.
Try to be consistent with meal and snack times – set fixed time for eating all meals. Following a fixed timetable for eating and sleeping will have best health benefits over a long period of time.
Eat at least one meal together.
And don't forget the other half of the healthy lifestyle mix: exercise
For exercise, make a plan to get up and move every day for a minimum commitment of 15 minutes to start. Physical activity should be scheduled. This can be taking a walk, running, kids yoga, cycling, skipping, going up and down stairs or even dancing.