Keeping Kids Healthy--5 ways we do it.

On our way to his first day of college (for a summer class), my 15-year-old man-child said something offhandedly that gave me pause. We were discussing a friend of his who had recently had surgery and had had to stay in bed for a matter of weeks. When I said I couldn't imagine that, Gus said, "Yeah, I haven't even been sick for 2 years.". Then we went on, talking about other things. 

It wasn't until I got home that I realized that what he said was sort of amazing. Most of us deal with the occasional winter cold or flu, or passing stomach bug. Some of us have to deal with more serious illnesses. I don't think of our family as particularly clean living or of Gus as a super healthy kid, but there it is. No sickness for 2 years. It isn't actually 'normal' for us to get sick. Our immune systems really could be strong enough to not get the bugs that go around, but often they are not. 

For the most part, the rest of us don't get sick that often, either. Keeping us healthy, along with making sure my kids aren't idiots, has been one of my major projects for the last 15 years. It was somewhat easier when all they were eating was breastmilk... then if something was up, I knew whose diet had to clean up. (That sure made it easy to get off of sugar when my youngest was small and rashy). But those warm, squishy baby buddha days are long gone, and now all 6'1" of Gus takes a lot more to keep him going. I guess the project has been pretty successful and I figured I'd share how we do it.

1. Sleep. Yep. You know it. It's best for us, and for them, too. The National Sleep Project recommends 9-11 hours for kids ages 6-13 and 8-10 hours for teens ages 14-17. And, at a recent parenting worship I learned that a consistent wake-up time is very important for teens being able to stay in their groove during the week. Enough sleep does the same thing for our kiddos that it does for us: regulates body systems, including nervous and endocrine, keeps our skin healthy, normalizes metabolism, and the list goes on.

2. Nutrition. Again, no shocker here. I have way less control of this than I used to. My 'big three' as I call the older kiddos, have been vegetarians always. Now that they are in their second growth spurt, I remind them daily that protein and vegetables are their friends. And they're my friends too. A couple resources I use to help with this are Kelly's awesome FREE Grain-Free Meal Plans and Cynthia Lair's Silly Awesome Website Meal planning definitely helps me keep the fresh food coming. When it doesn't happen, we live in the land of quesadillas. Which is a nice place to visit, but there's so much more out there! Yes, it is expensive to feed my children well. But, since they rarely get sick, I'd say it's worth it!

3. Supplements and Probiotics. Unfortunately, I seemed to have passed on the trait of not being able to consistently take anything in pill form. This is probably a good thing, but it does make for rather spotty supplementation. Two supplements that I try to make sure my kids stay up on are Vitamin D and Probiotics. In the colder months, they also take cod-liver oil. 

4. Free time, Movement and Fresh Air. While my 'big-three' will all go off to school in the fall, we have been a homeschooling family, and will continue to homeschool their little brother. One of our reasons for homeschooling when they were young was so that they would have these three things. (I know I said there would only be five and this makes it more, oops.) Now that they are older, and involved with activities and school, it is harder to make sure that they have these, but I continue to think they are more important than ever. And while I'm not going to go into the screen-time discussion here, I will say that I try to encourage my kids to make a buffer around their sleep of 1 hour with no screens--which is definitely easier, having raised them without TV or video games, but harder and harder as computers are necessary for homework. Mama is still working on being a good example of this.  

5. Natural Remedies. Since they were tiny, I have relied on homeopathy, herbs, nutritional support, Bach Flower remedies and essential oils to keep my children healthy. One of my favorite resources is Dr. Aviva Romm. I have all of her books and they have served as my 'doctor', for the most part. I am extremely blessed to have healthy children, who rarely need medical assistance. Her website now is a quick and easy resource, as well. Not only has this one giant kid of mine not been sick for two years, but in 15 years of parenting we've only had to rely on antibiotics once. For supplies I use Mountain Rose Herbs, 1-800 Homeopathy and Young Living Essential oils.