Cloudnine brings the PART III Series of Unhealthy Habits of Children & How Parents Can Overcome Them as advised by Dr. Lakshmy Menon, Consultant Neonatologist and Paediatrician at Cloudnine.
One of them is on ‘Not washing hands when critically required’ and October 15th is observed globally as awareness on Global Hand Washing Day.
Unhealthy Habit 5: Not Washing Their Hands
Possible Reasons - Usually children from what they see. So if they are told the importance of hand washing and shown what all they touched before they eat, they will probably understand it better.
What Parents can do: Show by being an example. Make the hand washing area accessible for younger children and have some fun soaps and cute towels which makes it all very easy for them. Maybe when they start with the habit, teach them a jingle that they can hum along. Show them pictures of germs, story books about germs and how they cause sickness etc.
Unhealthy Habit 6: Dieting
Implications- At the Pre-Teen age and during Teenage, lot of kids want to emulate models and actors in the desire to get the body their role models possess.
Disorders like anorexia nervosa and Bulimia are the effects of ”too much” dieting or no control on healthy eating habits. NO single factor causes it. Usually a combination of peer pressure and family members all contribute to it. Parents should understand and try as much as possible to explain to the growing child that no one organ is spared from health issues if the child is anorexic/bulimic. Organs that get affected include heart, skin, teeth, eyes, hair, menstrual cycle etc.
What Parents can do: Parents can themselves be role models to advocate and implement healthy life and try and instill these in children.
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