Tips To Keep Your Child’s Heart Healthy!
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- Tips To Keep Your Child’s Heart Healthy!
You may believe that heart disease is only problem of adults, not yours small children. Childhood diet and exercise habits can either set the stage for lifetime heart health or lifetime heart damage.
Some recent studies shows that daily healthy eating habits needed to prevent heart problems have more beneficial if they are learned early in life. Prevention is always better than cure. Shanikrupa Heartcare Centre encourages to start the preventive measures and healthy lifestyle to prevent the heart diseases as early as possible.
WHY HEART HEALTH IS IMPORTANT?
The heart is most powerful organ of our body which pumps oxygenated blood to the within part of our body. Oxygenated blood carries oxygen and nutrients which is required to cells and tissues. That’s why, if our heart is healthy, our overall health is healthy.
Some causes of adult heart disease that starts in childhood and that can be prevented. As a parents, it is very important to take initiative steps to keep our children’s hearts healthy and strong.
In this blog we are giving you some tips which maintain your child’s heart healthy which also focus on prevention and lifestyle changes.
1. Healthy Habits:
Ensuring that your child follow a heart-healthy diet, which includes a variety of nutrients essential for growth and development. Balanced and nutritional diet is the key to maintain your child’s heart healthy.
Focus on providing whole grains, plenty of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins. Encourage them to drink plenty of water.
Limit their intake of processed foods, snacks, bakery products, fast food, salted food, fried food and unhealthy fats. Limit the intake of sugar containing beverages.
2. Physical Activity:
Exercise plays major role in cardiovascular health. Activities like walking, cycling, swimming and other physical exercise can improve heart strength and fitness.
Exercise also strengthens the heart, improves the blood circulation, and promotes healthy weight, reducing the heart disease risk.
The American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids over 6 years of age should get at least 60 minutes of exercise each day.
3. Adequate sleep:
Sleep is vital factor in our daily routine. Adequate sleep is essential for healthy heart. If our children sleep properly then it allows the body to recharge and reduces the risk of stress and high blood pressure.
Please encourage your children to maintain a consistent bedtime routine.
4. Reduce screen time:
Excessive screening time leads to inactivity, which can impact badly on heart health. Encourage your children to play outdoor games and stay active. Offer them drawing books, reading books, puzzles, indoor games as an alternative to the screen.
5. Maintain healthy weight:
Higher body weight can contribute to high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes. These three conditions are the major risk factors for heart disease.
If you child carrying extra pounds of weight which makes their heart work harder, which can also cause damage to heart muscles.
If your child eating well and doing regular exercise can help them to maintain a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) which is recommended level for good heart health is under 25.
Important note: Above tips won’t prevent congenital heart disease or heart defects that children are born with it. These tips will create healthy lifestyle to your child that minimizes the risk of developing heart disease in their future.