Nurturing Yourself and Your Children
Nurturing yourself is not selfish - it's essential to your survival and wellbeing. Renee Peterson Trudeau
Dr Arne Rubinstein (author and expert on childhood development) highlights some critical components for good health as seen below. While they might seem obvious, they are vital to your son’s capacity to be able to learn effectively and ultimately to the development of his healthy personal identity.
- good healthy food
- adequate sleep
- regular exercise
- time in nature
Good Healthy Food
Your son is growing quickly, and his brain is going through a critical stage of development. It is important you give him the best and most healthy food possible, including lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.
The high sugar content in energy and other soft drinks or lollies, spikes the glucose levels in the bloodstream, leading to a momentary increase in energy, followed by a large release of insulin. This then leads to a dramatic drop in circulating glucose and a crash in energy levels.
Also, the huge increase in processed carbohydrates, sugars, and trans-fatty acids (as substitutes for simple fruits, vegetables and proteins and healthy fats in our children’s diets) is implicated in an epidemic of behavioural and learning disorders in the Western World.
Diet and gut dysfunction are involved in many of these disorders. These diets lead to digestive and nutritional deficiencies and, not so surprisingly, a host of learning and behavioural disorders caused by the lack of essential nutrients to the brain.
The best influence you can have on your son’s eating habits is to eat well yourself and to minimise junk food in the house.
Adequate Sleep
Inadequate sleep affects the ability to concentrate, and leads to irritability, lack of motivation and, in some cases, contributes to depression.
Sleep researchers believe there is no one magic number for ‘sleep need’. There are a lot of individual differences in what children and adolescents need in regard to sleep to be at their best, but below is a guide from the evidence we have so far.
- Babies under 1: 12-16 hours per day (including naps)
- Toddlers: 11-14 hours per day (including naps)
- Pre-school: 10-13 hours per day (including naps)
- Primary school: 9-12 hours per day
- High school: 8-10 hours per day
- Adults: 7-9 hours per day
If your son is having trouble sleeping, you can try to change or include some of the things on this list.
- Avoid TV and computer games 1 hour before bed (no TVs or devices in bedrooms).
- Avoid coke/caffeine, high sugar, or high spicy food 3-4 hours before bed.
- Ensure relaxing and regular bedtime routine.
- Avoid vigorous exercise 1 hour before bed, as it raises the body temperature.
- Finish eating 2-3 hours before bed, as digestion competes with sleeping.
- Make sure the bedroom is comfortable (temperature, light, noise).
- Set bedtimes and wake times - try to keep these regular.
- Discuss with your son the importance of sleeping well.
Regular Exercise
Regular physical exercise can help children and adolescents improve cardiorespiratory fitness, build strong bones and muscles, control weight, reduce symptoms of anxiety and promote mental health, and reduce the risk of developing other health conditions. It helps to burn off excess energy, and correspondingly, provide them with extra energy during the day.
Toddlers and pre-schoolers should engage in a variety of physical activities for at least 3 hours every day. This time can include planned, adult-led physical activity, as well as unstructured active free play.
Five to seventeen-year-olds should do at least 60 minutes in total of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day. That includes fast walking, riding a bike or scooter, playing, running, and doing organised sports. The 60 minutes doesn’t have to be done all in one go. You can build it up, so your child accumulates physical activity over the day. Aside from this, including several hours of various light physical activities each day (like walking the dog, walking to school, going to the park with friends, helping around the house) will optimise the benefits.
Limiting the time spent sitting or lying down (especially in front of screens) helps children grow and develop good habits for life. Long periods of inactivity can lessen the benefits of being physically active so it’s important to break these up as often as possible.
Exercise is fundamental and should be an integral part of everybody's daily routine.
Time in Nature
Finally, Dr Rubinstein says to get your son outdoors! Take them camping, spend time with them in nature. Ask them to leave their electronic devices (such as mobile phones and even watches) behind. In nature, young men must think for themselves, and they have to look after themselves. It's a very healthy and enjoyable place for them (and you) to spend time.
The pace of life these days has meant that it can be easy to forget about some of the simple, yet critical health measures.
By setting good routines in place, agreeing to them, and guarding against the ‘slow slip’, we can help our sons to thrive in their learning and relationships.
“What we eat and drink today, walks and talks tomorrow”
“Regular exercise and rest, enables us to be our best”.
Peter Grimes | Headmaster
References:
The Making of Men: Raising boys to be happy, healthy and successful - Dr Arne Rubinstein
Australian Centre for Education and Sleep
Link - Sleep Education / sleep%20facts
Understanding Boys
Link - Understanding Boys / getting-your-son-into-healthy-sleep-habits
Benefits of Exercise
Link - Kids Health / parents / exercise
Link - Health Direct / benefits-of-physical-activity-for-children
Mindd Foundation
Link - Mindd
