Teaching kids about health and healthy living involves two key components.  The first component is to teach kids about healthy lifestyles.  The second component is to model a healthy lifestyle in your own choices and behaviors.

Eating Healthy

Obesity rate in today’s children are at an all time high. This means that we as proud parents need to emphasize to our kids that by providing healthy food choices are important to their health. Make the choices our kids make at home or when dining out good solid ones by providing healthy menus for them to choose from. Let them know that protein is important to their diet. Protein works like the spark plugs in our car. They give the engine the boost to create more energy to run efficient just like proteins does for the body.

Kids can also learn about the healthy choices when choosing side dishes as well. Another important role in the lids diet is carbohydrates. Teaching them which carbs are bad and good is essential when making good healthy decisions. Other sources which are great are fruits and vegetables which are great sources for them to eat. Potatoes, rice, even pasta are good. But the best choices are in the whole grain family. Proper servings for these foods are about 1 cup. Show your children how much a cup really is which is the very best visual to help them understand about food portions.

Remember, that a healthy diet does include some fats, so you don’t want to eliminate them entirely.  Your kids can have some sugar.  Just don’t overdue it.

The Path To Good Health Is Exercise

In past decades, kids used to play outside until the moon appeared. These days are quite different. More and more parents are looking at the safety concerns when leaving children outside with no supervision. Work days are even more hectic which means that any kids activities need to be scheduled in order for our kids to play.

Kids these days are frequently into gaming, computer time, or watching tv. I have found that there are some innovative videos games that actually deal with healthy activities while playing. This is great for using games as a healthy activity.

One of the best ways to teach children about healthy exercise is to engage them in healthy, fun activities.

Get them outside playing on the swings and the slides, running around chasing each other, and playing tag and other active games that will get the heart pumping.  Let them climb trees and monkey bars.  Encourage skating and jumping rope.  Take bike rides and walks together to create memories and instill lifelong healthy habits.

Healthy Hygiene Is Important

Tiny kids love taking a bath. Usually, they cannot get enough tine in the bubbles and the toys that are within the tub with them. Parents are pretty much in control when bath their young. They come out squeaky clean and shiny. There was not a hassle when bathing them at that time. As children grow, the need to oversee them when bathing is necessary due to sometimes they will be lazy or even skip bating all together.

Boys and girls usually hit a point in their life where taking a shower or a bath is something like torture. They come out barley wet, fingernails are still dirty, and will dress in the same clothes again! Kids seen to be very unaware that they need to incorporate good healthy hygiene habits so they will not have an odor on them. As a parent, we need to teach our children how to wash themselves properly.

You need to teach your children how to thoroughly wet and soap up a washcloth and wash each body part thoroughly.  It’s best to start teaching them these skills when they are as young as possible so they will argue less about it when they reach their anti-bathing stage.  You also need to instruct them about washing between their toes, behind their ears, and in other body crevices.  In addition, you should show them how to gently massage their scalp with their fingertips and work up suds to wash their hair thoroughly.  You’ll also need to teach them how to dry themselves off thoroughly.

One more important aspect to teach is proper dental care.  Kids need to be taught how to brush as well as floss at a young age. Learning how to rinse by using mouthwash is vital as well and should be instituted. Using these models early in life will benefit your children for years to come.

We Are The Parents

Parents need to take their parenting responsibilities seriously.  In addition to teaching them about eating right, exercising, and proper hygiene, they need to model all of these healthy behaviors personally.  They also need to talk with their children-and listen-so they can help them avoid the negative influences of others and prevent them from adopting bad habits like smoking, drinking, or drugs.

Parents need to be sure their children get adequate sleep each night for healthy bodies and minds.  They also need to teach them responsibility with household chores, so they can become responsible people.

Warren D. Griffin (The Health Dude) writes articles on fitness, health, and nutrition. Teaching kids about health is important. Find out how to teach kids about health and obesity. My new book teaches parents how to defeat childhood obesity for better health!