It is essential for every mother to ensure her child develops healthy habits from the very beginning of life to safeguard their health and well-being. Health is linked to a child's immunity against diseases and enhances their intelligence, as a sound mind resides in a sound body. Therefore, every mother should be mindful of certain practices that she may unintentionally engage in, which can affect her child's health in the short or long term.
There are real things we may not be aware of, but they happen every day and impact a child's health. For this reason, "Sayidaty wa Tiflak" (My Lady and Your Child) magazine met with family physician Dr. Badriya Zayed, who pointed out several real factors that affect a child's health without us realizing it, including: drinking tea after meals, staying up late, skipping breakfast, and others. These include:
1- Giving children excessive sweets negatively impacts their health. Refrain from giving your child sweets of all kinds and forms, even commercially available fruit-flavored yogurt sold in supermarkets, as it does not contain any real fruit. It contains artificial colors, flavor enhancers, and a high percentage of sugar to make the child taste fruit, while the accumulated sugar harms the child's health. In fact, the incidence of type 2 diabetes (juvenile diabetes) has increased worldwide in recent years.
Stop giving your children sugary snacks between meals, especially since they affect their appetite and cause them to reject healthy foods containing protein, vitamins, and minerals. Naturally, consuming sugar leads to increased cravings for more, resulting in weakened immunity, obesity, and other health problems that can be prevented. Mothers often believe that sweets are a way to reward their children, but in reality, they are the harshest punishment, affecting their health for life.
2- Drinking tea immediately after meals affects a child's health. Be aware that one of the common mistakes in our Arab customs is serving tea after breakfast. Although giving tea to young children is not recommended due to its numerous harmful effects, especially since it is a stimulant that affects their nervous system; Drinking tea between or immediately after meals inhibits the absorption of iron consumed by the child. Children often eat meat, chicken liver, or beef liver, and while these foods are high in iron, essential for a child's health and growth, drinking tea immediately after a meal hinders iron absorption and reduces the body's ability to utilize it. It is preferable to limit tea consumption to children, ideally at least two hours after meals.
3- Excessive Use of Electronic Devices Affects Children's Health
Tablet Use
Prevent your child from using widely available electronic devices, including tablets and smartphones, due to their significant harm to a child's health, development, mental abilities, behavior, and overall well-being. Although mothers often believe that giving such devices to children is a good way to fill their free time and prevent crying and mess at home, they are unaware of the harmful effects of their use, especially before the age of three.
Be aware that excessive use of all types of electronic devices, or even a child's proximity to them, leads to decreased concentration and lower intelligence levels. It also increases anxiety and the risk of depression in adolescence, in addition to causing sleep disorders in children, which can result in obesity and developmental delays.
4- Late bedtimes affect a child's health.
Know that a child's regular, early, and uninterrupted nighttime sleep of at least eight hours positively impacts their health, immunity, and growth. You should understand the importance of this sleep pattern for your child's overall well-being. Early bedtimes and avoiding late nights significantly contribute to stimulating the production of growth hormone, thus protecting the child from deformities and stunted growth, as growth hormone is most active at night and in darkness. Furthermore, nighttime sleep enhances your child's mental abilities, strengthens their concentration and comprehension skills, and improves their memory, especially if they review what they learned during the day before going to sleep and avoid any other activities afterward. Healthy sleep also maintains a child's mood, protects them from nervousness and tension, energizes their body, and gives them the ability to perform their daily activities with vigor throughout the day. Continuous nighttime sleep also stimulates a child's brain cells, maintains the overall health of their nervous system, and preserves the health of their body's cells and senses, especially their eyesight.
5- Cleaning the house near the child affects their health. Completely refrain from cleaning the house with chemical cleaners, especially near the child, and particularly if your child is still an infant in their first few months. Some mothers, for example, clean windows near the child because they believe that leaving the child alone in their room will prevent them from hearing their cries when they wake up. Therefore, they place the child in the living room while cleaning the glass and polishing mirrors with special cleaners, unaware that a newborn's respiratory system is very sensitive. A newborn's lungs are naturally programmed to absorb oxygen very efficiently due to their immaturity. Therefore, if a newborn is near any source of chemical detergents that release toxins and volatile gases, their lungs are capable of absorbing these toxins and inhaling the gases at a rate three times faster than an adult's lungs. This behavior, without the mother's awareness, can lead to the child developing chronic respiratory allergies that persist throughout their life without treatment.
6- Skipping breakfast affects a child's health.
Healthy breakfast.
Know that a healthy breakfast for your family members generally helps provide their bodies with energy, activity, and vitality throughout the day.