By James Helliwell
Fast food restaurants, burgers, and video games are taking precedence over home cooked meals, vegetables, and outdoor play time for kids of all ages. Instead of playing cricket and chasing after runaway footballs, kids are glued to video games and munching on junk food. With a rise in obesity comes a rise in children’s diabetes as well as other health issues. This also has a financial impact with freedom and free charge activities of playing out, playing sport in the park and building rope swings being replaced by the expensive screens and great value healthy lunches being replaced with the local expensive fast food joint. Our little children are experiencing an epidemic that never should have occurred. So, in what ways can we encourage our children to keep active and eat the leafy greens and engage in the activities that they need to grow strong and healthy?
Here are a few great ideas for both you and your children to try!
Encourage Outdoor Activities:
The more you’re outside, enjoying the fresh air and drinking in the warm rays of the sun, the better chance both you and your children have at staying healthy. Worldwide we are losing this natural connection to the outdoors and nature Keeping active and staying in motion not only keeps the extra pounds off you and your children’s frames, but it also helps to keep your system running the way it should.
Encourage your children to play at least one to two hours a day outside. If at all possible, go outside with them, throw the ball around, build a fort, or let them help you wash your car. Any outdoor activities done together as a family will not only make it fun, but will keep all of you active.
You could also enroll your children in extracurricular activities, such as sports like hockey, cricket, football, or even golf. There is no shortage in fun and active sports, so finding something your children like and enjoy should be easy.
Healthy Eating is Cost Effective:
Whether or not you realise it, children follow the large footsteps of mum and dad. When you eat healthy, your children eat healthy, so make sure to load their dinner plates, as well as yours, with lots of veggies, good meats like lamb chops or mincemeat, and healthy sides. Make their breakfasts as filling and nutritious as possible, like porridge or granola If you pack your children’s lunches for school, fill their boxes with a healthy sandwich and a piece of fruit. Keeping your children interested on healthy food is a great way to make sure they are getting what they need and help keep your costs lower and healthy home mad food is always much better value.
Visit Your Doctor Regularly:
Make sure your little ones visit their pediatrician regularly to ensure that they’re not only growing properly, but that they receive the help, shots, and nutritional advice they need. An excellent pediatrician will not only help to give you tips and advice on healthy living for your children, but a good doctor and an excellent insurance will help to keep your children as healthy as possible. By covering your children with a high quality health insurance, you can rest easy knowing that your children will and can be seen by the best Doctors around. Finding a quality health insurance will help cover most of your doctor visits and medical expenses. If your child has diabetes, having insurance will help to cover the costs that come with the disease.
Make sure you have the right health insurance:
In some countries people have access to medical services that are free (or cheap) at point of access. However, even people going between European Economic Area countries and who hold an EHIC card are only entitled to the service a national of that country gets – so it doesn’t replace insurance. In most countries, such as the US, an adequate level of health insurance in crucial, otherwise you could end up with very large bills or even not be able to be treated. There are even stories of people being turned away from some countries for not being insured.
Travelling abroad to live will usually mean making sure that you have international health insurance to keep you covered for unexpected medical treatment or illness. For an idea of how much costs can vary for the uninsured, this recent infographic shows the often very high costs of operations worldwide. So make sure you are covered as this is a cost you never want to incur it great for your peace of mind to know your family and children are covered.