Healthy Habits for Your Kids this School Year

Sick days are stressful. For our young students, well, who likes being sick? For parents, sick days bring along worries about childcare, missed learning, and helplessly watching sick babies suffer. What if sick days didn’t have to be helpless, though? What if, instead, you were empowered to know how to prevent sick days from happening in the first place? Utilize these tactics to ensure that your young student stays strong and healthy this school year.

1. Encourage movement throughout the day. It comes as no surprise that the more we move, the stronger our bodies (and minds) feel. Whether it is going for an evening walk as a family after dinner or promoting play during recess at school, staying active boosts your child’s health in more ways than one. Along with establishing a healthy routine of movement, exercise mobilizes immune cells and builds up the immune response. More movement, less sick days!
   
   
2. Eat mindfully. This doesn’t just mean eating nourishing, nutrient-dense whole foods – it also means making sure your student is eating regularly and intentionally. Every parent is familiar with the tale of a hangry child returning home from school. This can cause stress for parent and child alike, and we all know just how much stress weighs on your overall wellness. To combat this, one possible solution is to prep your kid’s snacks ahead of time so they are accessible and fast. Rather than making the snack upon request, you can cut any produce and portion any dips (or similar) ahead of time so your child can easily grab it whenever needed. 
   
   
3. HYDRATE! It can certainly be a struggle to make sure your student is drinking enough water, especially while they are away at school. You can make drinking water more fun for your student by adding some color – lemons, strawberries, mint leaves, etc. – or letting them personalize their water bottle. 
   
   
4. Start an elderberry regiment. You can look to some of our other blog posts where teachers have sung their praises about how Elderberry Co products keep them healthy during the school year. It is a given that the beginning of the school year marks a time of shared supplies, close (sometimes nonexistent) personal bubbles between students, and increased stress. In addition, with autumn comes allergies – especially here in the Ohio River Valley. As such, it is more important than ever to ensure your student stays healthy and can get the most out of their school year! An added benefit of our Elderberry Syrup is that it not only boosts the immune system via elderberries and aronia berries, but the raw honey helps to combat the dreaded sniffles and sneezes.