Safeguarding Your Family’s’ Health – Vital Do and Donts For Any Mom

As a mom, keeping our family safe and healthy is right at the top of our list of priorities. Unfortunately for us, it usually trumps getting enough alone time or sleep! Even so, it is worth it to know that our family is thriving. But what sort of things do we need to do, to make sure that our families health and well being is looked after? Read on to find out.

Do deal with medical and dental emergencies as soon as possible

While having a medical or dental emergency can be distressing due to the pain and the costs involved it is not something that should ever be ignored.

Ignoring a health emergency can have dire consequences for the patient. In fact, some medical emergencies pose a risk to life and should always be dealt with right away! Also, it is often easier to deal with problems when they first occur rather than letting them develop into something more serious.

This can be especially relevant when dealing with dental emergencies. As leaving them without treatment can cause unnecessary pain and increase the likelihood of further damage.

Luckily you can now get dental treatment even on the weekends through sites like SaturdayDentist.org. They will find you a dentist that can work on you ASAP to help you get your problem and pain resolved. So there is no excuse for not getting your family’s problems sorted.

Don’t ignore regular run of the mill appointments

It is also vital in looking out for your family’s health is making sure to make and keep regular appointments with medical professionals.  Regular physical and dental checkups are very important for children as they grow. Often any issues can be caught early and dealt with before they become too problematic.

Of course, when you are struggling to even find the time to even sit down, medical appointments can seem like something that can be put off. Except if they are for a pressing emergency matter. But try not to do this, as they have a habit of creeping farther and farther back and then they never actually happen!

Do promote healthy eating

We hear the message all the time now that we should promote healthy eating to our kids. It’s so important because habits formed in childhood often last us throughout the whole of our lives. That is why encouraging a balanced and healthy diet early, can be so essential.

So what is the best way of promoting healthy eating to our little ones? Well, there are several small and gentle ways of doing this. The first is to always provide healthy snack options at home. Small boxes of dried fruit such as raisins, or celery sticks can work well for younger kids that like to feed themselves.

For older kids, you can get them involved in the preparation and cooking of meals and snacks. Then you are not just teaching them to eat healthily but to cook healthy as well!

Try snacks like homemade hummus created with garlic, olive oil, and chickpeas. Serve with raw vegetable crudites. Or how about getting them to create their own pasta sauce instead of buying the sugar ladened stuff in jars? All you need is some tinned tomatoes and a few herbs. You can even add cooked pureed carrot for natural sweetness and extra veg that you can’t even tell it’s there.

Don’t ban all treat food

While it is important to ensure that the majority of your families meals and snacks are healthy, it is also vital that you do not ban treat food.  Just make sure they remain as something that you have occasionally, but not all the time.

Things like candy, chips, and pizza can all be enjoyed as a part of a healthy balanced diet on occasion. It is actually pretty unhealthy leaving them out altogether. This is because it creates a taboo around certain foods. Which will probably only make the kids only want it more!

Also when you start to ban food groups completely like fats or sugars you can get into dangerous territory. While it appears that you are doing something positive, it can create all sorts of control issues around food.

Your child might see this as an attempt to control their choices and rebel against it. Or they could internalize it and get in the habit of eating in a very restricted way.  Which can also be problematic.

Do encourage fun activities that get the kids moving

Of course, a major part of being healthy is being active. That is why it is essential to promote some fun, but calorie burning activities with your family.

It is all too easy these days to lead a sedentary lifestyle, even if you are a child, what with mobile devices and computer consoles. You can get some more information about this problem by following links like http://activelivingresearch.org. But, luckily there are plenty of fun activities that can get them up and moving.

A simple bike ride is a great way to develop new skills and get active at the same time. It’s also a fantastic way to spend quality time with you kids and teach them about the environment and road safety too.

If you have very little kids another way of getting them up and moving is to encourage them to watch TV shows that include an active element. Many shows add music and dance to their schedules now, and kids get to practice their coordination skills without even thinking about it.

There are even some computer consoles that have games where you have to move about. These are serious fun, and a great way of getting a technologically savvy little ones to embrace a more active lifestyle.

Then, of course, there a peewee and junior leagues for baseball, hockey, and soccer. These can make great physical activities, that also teach your kids about teamwork and losing as well as winning. As well as and how to develop fine motor skills. These are habits that can end up lasting a lifetime.

Don’t force your kids into doing activities only to please you

The thing with activities like junior leagues is that you have to be careful that the kids are doing them because they want to and that they enjoy them. This is the only way that they will stay motivated and get the best of out what they are doing.

Sometimes kids do these activities because you love baseball or hockey. Then they feel pressure to follow in your footsteps and keep up the family tradition. But picking an activity in this way, might not make it the best activity to choose.  Kids will often do much better if they are engaged in something that they are enjoying. So it is better to let them pick their own sports.

Do set boundaries

One of the most important things for you family’s health is to set boundaries with regards to what is acceptable in term of food and activities.  Kids respond to clear rules and expectations, even if they do buck against them sometimes! Getting them into good routines when they are young can help your children develop into healthy adults.

Don’t forget to talk to your kids

Sometimes the emotional health of our family can be overlooked in favor of all the physical things. But it is still an important part of family health.

One way of keeping on top of the emotional health of the family is to make sure that you talk to your kids and not just at them. Of course, the parent-child relationship includes you setting the rules and them keeping to them, but it is so much more as well.

Talking with your kids develops a bond of mutual respect. That way they know that you are interested in them, not just in a ‘basic three square meals a day way’ but also in how they are feeling and what they want. This open dialogue can be invaluable when they are not feeling so great as you have laid the groundwork to get to the bottom of what is going on with them.

Do lead by example

Remember that the one key thing that is holding all of this advice together is your example. The example that you set as a parent is probably the most crucial way that you can encourage your kids to look after their own health.

It doesn’t matter how many healthy meals you cook, or activities you take them to if you are not doing these things yourself. More than anything else your kids learn by watching what you do. So feeding them hand made organic dinners, but skipping dinner to eat a family sized pack of chips yourself is not going to work. You are just acting against what you are trying to instill in them.

The same goes with dealing with problems with your health. If they see you put off health issues, or have bad habits, they will learn from an early age that some things should be ignored when you are a grown up.

Remember that you are the most important role model in the life of your child, so what you do really matters to their development.