Why it's important that your child's diet is calcium-rich

Calcium is an inevitable part of your child's diet. You cannot afford to skip it if you wish to maintain a healthy lifestyle for your child. It is recommended that children between the ages of 9 and 18 should get approximately 1300 milligrams of calcium every day. Calcium-rich diet is important for your child for a number of reasons.

Why calcium?

Calcium helps in building strong bones and teeth for your child.
It is important in order to ensure proper functioning of your child's muscles and nerves.
Calcium plays a vital role in the release of such hormones and enzymes in your child's body that convert the food he eats into energy.
It is also helpful in causing the blood to clot whenever your child gets bruised.
Since your child is continuously growing, a calcium-rich diet ensures an adequate supply of resources that help him to develop new bones that are healthy and strong.
A calcium-rich diet is also essential as far as other bodily functions like muscle contraction, blood vessel constriction and relaxation are concerned.
What does lack of a calcium do to your child's body?

Lack of calcium can cause bone diseases like osteoporosis in your girl child, thus exposing her to a greater risk of weakened bones and possibility of fractures.
If your child is a young kid and his diet lacks calcium or vitamin d, which absorbs calcium, he is exposed to the threats of the bone-softening disease called rickets. It can cause in him bowing of the legs, muscle pain and poor growth.
Bones are living tissues that change constantly, old bones keep getting replaced by newer ones and a calcium-rich diet aids this procedure. Therefore without an adequate supply of calcium, this process would borrow minerals from existing bones, thus weakening them and exposing them to increased risks of fracture.
Lack of calcium also increases risks of cardiovascular diseases, damaged gums, high blood pressure, ovarian and breast cancer and several other infirmities in your child in his later years.

Why it's Important That Your Child's Diet is Calcium-Rich

A newborn baby is always vulnerable and is dependent on parents for taking appropriate care. Following the fundamental guidelines with regard to safety, which get chalked out by a paediatrician, would make sure that a baby is completely safe and healthy.

It is important to take certain measures while feeding the baby as well. Parents need to follow certain do s and don'ts in this regard as well.

Let us take a look at some of the Do s and Don'ts while taking care and feeding of newborns: 

Do s 

Be Attentive: 

Pay close attention to your baby. Research suggests that if a parent holds, bonds and touches his or her baby, they might help promote the development of the brain. Plus there could be physical, emotional and mental growth taking place as well. 

Care From Paediatricians: 

Parents must take their child for regularly scheduled visits to the paediatricians and should get their queries solved. Do follow the recommendations of your doctor to immunize your baby at 1, 2, 4, 6, 9 and 12 months.

Care About Sleep Posture: 

Always make sure to put your baby sleep on his or her back. Moreover, a baby should sleep under a comfortable temperature by wearing light clothes.

Be Concerned About Safety Measures: 

Parents should always use a car seat while travelling with the baby in a car. Follow the instructions given by the manufacturer, while trying to strap the car seat into the car and the baby in the car seat. 

Do Get Comfortable While Feeding: 

It is important to find a very comfortable position to feed the baby. Before getting started, one must make note of the fact that there is sufficient support her back and under the baby. 

Personal Touch: 

Skin-to-skin touch should be made while feeding, as and when possible. Babies get a special feeling whenever it is done. 

Take Time: 

It is important to take time while feeding the baby. Make note of the baby's cues. Mothers can resort to singing and socializing with the baby to make the duration even more comfortable. 

Don'ts 

Now, let us briefly discuss what should not be done while taking care of and feeding the newborns. The tips include: 

Do not show your irritation on the baby, while you make him or her take their bath. 

Do not allow sick people to come close or touch your baby as they would be susceptible to catching infections. 

Do not get the baby s bottles heated in a microwave. Do not feed your baby in a noisy and chaotic place. 

Do not allow the baby to fall off to sleep while you are feeding. Never let your baby sleep on the stomach as there would be a risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. 

 Newborn Care  & Feeding - Do's & Dont's Of Them!

It is no longer so surprising to read about alarming air pollution levels in our cities. On more than one occasion, these levels have risen above the danger levels. For some people, this may simply create an annoying fog that makes it difficult to see. For others, it can cause serious health issues. Air pollution is one of the most common reasons for the growing instances of asthma and allergies. Children are most susceptible to such diseases caused by air pollution.

Asthma and Allergies
Asthma can affect children even before their fifth birthday and the condition is characterized by breathlessness caused by a constriction of the airways. While the root cause of asthma is unknown, it is usually seen that asthmatic patients are more sensitive to others to particles in the air such as pollutants, dander, dust, smoke etc. Thus, the airways construct as a reaction to these allergens. Changes in the weather, a sudden cold draft or the flu can also aggravate asthma.

Can you Protect Your Children from Asthma?
Wheezing, panting, finding it difficult to breathe and a persistent cough are some of the signs of asthma. If you notice these symptoms, you must consult a doctor immediately. At home, here are a few things you could do.

Avoid exposing your children to smoke: Do not smoke around your children or allow others to smoke around them. If you cannot give up the habit, wear a smoking jacket when you smoke and take this off before you play with your children. When you ll go out, drive with the windows up so that your child does not inhale exhaust smoke. Set your air conditioner to circulate air within the car itself.
Dust often: Try and keep your home as dust free as possible. Use a wet cloth to clean so that the dust does not fly in the air. Wash all your bed linen once a week. Carpets and rugs should be vacuumed regularly or dusted outside. It may also be a good idea to invest in dust mite impermeable covers for your child s mattress and pillows.
Keep your Pets clean: If you share your home with pets, bathe them once a week and brush them daily. Do not let them climb on to the furniture or your beds. Also, avoid having their toys lie on your beds.
Wear a face mask: Try and time your child s outdoor activities when the pollution levels are low. Buy yourself and your child a face mask that will filter the air they breathe in. These should be worn whenever they play outdoors.
These simple steps could help your child be healthier and can prevent asthma and other such allergic reactions.

Increasing Asthma & Allergy In Children - What Should You Do?

As a parent, we all love our children deeply. And most of us will agree that these days parenting is very demanding and exhausting instead of pleasurable and joyous process. What has changed? It is not that children are any different. The difference is in the environment around them with stronger social influences; and this also affects the way we parent. In today's more democratic and egalitarian world; 'Do as I say and not as I do' style of parenting does not work. But, 'I will do as I see you doing' phrase from kids define our parent child relationship.

With change in social environment and influence, our strategies for correcting their behaviour and impart discipline has to undergo adaptation! When there are so many confusing and conflicting signals reach to our kids from their environment, whether we like it or not, we are still their role models. How positive parenting style will help? The core principle of positive parenting is to accept your child as an individual. We are in a democratic society and family is a small yet important part of society. Democracy does not mean allowing disrespectful and irresponsible behaviour; rather to effectively help kids change their behaviour and create harmonious and cooperative relationship with them. It also means that we as a parent need to learn to think, act and react in a different way.

Through, positive parenting, you will learn respectful disciplining methods, which would work better than demanding compliance. Through these principles and tips you will get your child to listen without screaming, nagging, reminding or evoking rebellious behaviour. More importantly this is all about building stronger relationship bond with your children and nurture them through early childhood to teen age years as they become independent, responsible, capable, kind, happy and successful young adults.

Tips to get you started:

1. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, including children.

2. When your kid misbehaves instead of shouting or hitting, control your anger and respond in a calm and respectful way. Calmer but firmer tone and lower voice, yet not giving into their repeated demand, is much more effective as a discipline tool compare to nagging.

3. Understandable that you have a lot on your plate, such as work, managing and keeping the home in order, managing meals and other outside responsibilities, kids sports or extracurricular activities, family obligations and so on. It is easy to get lost in all these 'have to do' activities. Parenting shouldn't be just one more task to deal with. Reconnecting with your parenting goals and aspirations periodically will help take the stress out of it and add fun into it. Spend some time daily (10 minutes will do as well!) to just listen and enjoy your child (without correcting them or giving them suggestion to improve!).

4. Let your love for them be the driving force. Shift your internal conversations from 'have to' to 'Want to'. As you do enormous things for your child each day, think how you are supporting their ambitions. How you are helping them become independent and strong. How you are nurturing qualities like compassion and deep listening by extending yourself.

5. Give promises and keep them. As your children grow they need much more than your words to trust and rely on you. Keeping your promises, letting them know if you need to change the plan, taking their opinion in appropriate matter will go a long way.

6. Seek to understand and do not impose yourself on your child. Especially when they are in their teenage, as a parent you have lot of worries, you are afraid of them making mistakes and of course you want to protect them from vices. Listening to them while keeping your focus on genuinely understanding them is the only way to go, when they know you understand them and they can trust you, the street between both of you turns two way street! They will be open to your wisdom and suggestion when they are at the cross road.

7. Last but not the least, 'be a role model'. Don't preach. If they see you disrespecting others, they will not respect you. If they see you hooked on your smart phone; that is their license to keep theirs in front of their eyes 24/7. If you are hooked in front of the TV till late night and haven't picked up a book in last 6 months. Advice about reading is going to fall on dumb ears. In short, be the change you want to see in your children.

8. Have family nights at least once in a week, play cards, board games or go for a walk together. Talk and listen. Just be there and listen without judgement and criticism, without thinking about how to correct them. Just enjoy each other's company and see how they are changing their opinion about you. Positive parenting doesn't mean you will never have problems in your family. You will? if you are alive and growing family. Positive parenting style will open up the avenues to keep communication alive; it will open your children to your influence. Isn't it something that we all wish for!!

Positive Parenting

ADHD, CDD, short-term memory loss, forgetfulness, insomnia and so many more terminologies we would have come across very often. They all seem to have evolved from a common origin and that is concentration issues. Have you pondered on these questions!! Why can t it be easy to concentrate? Why can t it be easy to remember everything? If yes, then read on to know more.
Concentrate! Focus! Pay attention! These are not just words but one huge and complicated process in itself. Many children and as well as adults often develop this issue wherein they find extremely difficult to concentrate.

Science behind concentration issues: When an individual performs a single task; for example reading a book, the image of what he is seeing hits the retina. From the retina, the nerve fibres carry the image to the brain which stimulates the brain cells to fire an action potential. The signal from here moves to the thalamus and proceeds to the visual cortex. This signal activates locus coeruleus which is a brain stimulant. It targets the particular area of the brain becoming the deciding factor as to how one responds to a stimulus, which in this case is an image. When there is deregulation of the locus coeruleus, it is then that a person develops disorders like ADHA, anxiety, depression, insomnia and others.

Factors influencing concentration:
Concentration is a skill that requires you to prioritize your senses while doing any work. It is an ability to block out distractions.

Dedication to the task
Interest in the task
One s ability to complete the task
Physical and emotional state
Conducive environment with few distractions.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and concentration deficit disorder (CDD)
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and concentration deficit disorder (CDD) are the two predominant concentration issues. The first one is more common among the children while the latter is observed in mostly the adults. Any individual with ADHD or CDD can show abnormalities in their behavior and social life.

ADHD individuals tend to be forgetful and face problems sticking to one task and may even display excessive fidgeting. CDD individuals tend to be lethargic, move slowly and have trouble in staying alert. Adults may become socially withdrawn and exhibit slow information processing.

Solutions for concentration issues:
Concentration issues require a lot of time to be overcome. You can try to figure out what causes the distractions and avoid them as much as possible by refocusing your mind only on what you are doing. You can give yourself timers which comprise of  distraction time  and  focus time . This strategy helps if one s mind is actively processing other things. You may also create subtasks by listing the things you need to do and then ruling out one by one once you accomplish them. Always breathe better and try for long inhalation and exhalation. This helps to bring down your anxiety levels which hinder the concentration.

Though the above-mentioned strategies are just to help you improve your concentration they are not the ultimate cure for any of the issues. Every individual is unique and sometimes accepting oneself can solve many complications as it reduces the need for unnecessary thinking. Always bear positive thoughts in your mind as it will act as a driving source.

Concentration Issue - How Can It Be Managed?

Early childhood is a time when the brain develops rapidly and nutrition is an important part of healthy brain development. It is important for children to eat a variety of foods that can provide them with the proper intake of carbohydrate, protein, good fats, minerals, vitamins and antioxidants. There is a very strong mind-gut connection; therefore focusing on the food you choose to complete the nutritional needs of your child can make a great difference in their brain function.

Certain foods are better for our brains than others, these brain foods may help boost a child's brain growth and even improve the memory and cognitive development.

During infancy, the amino acids and fatty acids in breast milk are ideal for optimal brain development. The brain continues to grow throughout early childhood and children who do no consume a balanced diet are at risk of developing mental retardation and behavioral problem.

10 brain foods to feed the mind and body properly:

1. Whole grains: Brain needs a consistent supply of glucose, thus foods those are high in refined sugars and carbohydrates leads to rapid fluctuation in blood glucose levels and the brain doesn't get the steady fuel supply and energy for proper functioning, therefore to nourish the most active part of body include whole-grain breads, oatmeal, roasted grains in the diet of children for regular release of glucose in body. Oats are also rich in vitamin-B, Vitamin-E, potassium and zinc.

2. Eggs: The protein and nutrients in eggs help kids concentrate because the egg yolks are packed with choline which boosts memory. Eggs are also rich in protein, which provides energy to help the brain stay alert longer.

3. Fish: Fish is a good source of vitamin D and omega-3s, which protect the brain from declining mental skills and memory loss. Salmon, tuna, and sardines are all rich in Omega-3s. The more Omega-3s we can get to the brain, the better it will function and the better kids will be able to focus.

4. Seeds: Packed with protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Seeds may boost mood and keep your nervous system in check. For example sunflower seed butter as they are rich in folate, vitamin E and selenium and are safe for nut-free zones.try to include seeds directly to the meals.

5. Iron is important for brain development: Preschoolers and toddlers typically eat less iron-rich foods than they did in infancy. In addition, the iron that children get is usually non-Heme iron (from plant sources,) which has lower availability than heme iron (from animal source).sources beef, nuts and dark leafy vegetable (spinach) and tofu.

6. Milk and Yoghurt: Milk and yoghurt contains healthy fats and proteins those are important for brain health. The majority of the brain is made up of fat, so it is no wonder healthy fat is important to feed the developing brain. Protein is important as it can help brain cells send and receive information effectively. Yoghurt also contains good bacteria that will help boost your child's immune system as well as aid digestion, children need higher dose of vitamin D, which is present in dairy and its products.

7. Organic Foods and leafy vegetables: These organic foods are free from pesticides and insecticides and preservatives and do not cause neurodevelopment problems in children, which will impair proper brain functioning. Green leafy vegetables are loaded with vitamin A and K; these keep inflammation at bay .e.g. Spinach, kale, lettuce.

8. Walnuts: The high level of antioxidants, vitamin and minerals in walnuts improves the cognitive health of kids and improve their mental alertness also.

9. Colorful veggies: Vegetables with a rich, deep color such as tomatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, carrots, and spinach are the best sources of antioxidants that support brain health and keep brain cells strong. These foods can be given from weaning age.

10. Berries: The color of the food tells the nutritional value of it. All the berries like strawberry, cherries, blueberries and blackberries have intense color are especially rich in vitamin C and high levels of antioxidants. Blueberries have high levels of Gallic acid, which boost memory by preventing degeneration of brain cells.

So, go ahead and try to include different food group to your Child's plate for a better performance.

Must Have Brain Foods for Your Kids!

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