winter health tips for your child in nursery
This Winter has seen some very cold weather, but also crisp, cold days, and stunningly beautiful days with lots of ice and snow, which for your child probably meant building snow men, playing out in the snow, possibly even ice skating or even lucky enough to go skiing, and lots of other fun activities. But your child can only enjoy all of this if they stay healthy.
To keep your child healthy during Winter, especially during the really cold snaps there are some things you can do to avoid many of this winters coughs and colds.
As a general health precaution keep adequate supplies of Paracetamol and Ibuprofen at home in the medicine cabinet – in preparation for the inevitable temperatures and cold symptoms.
Hand washing is still one of the best ways to eliminate the spread of infections from one surface to another and from one child to another. Encourage your child to pick out a couple of favorite soaps from the local chemist or supermarket. Teach them how to mix the hot and cold water so the temperature is warm rather than bone chilling cold or scalding hot. Encouraging your children to treat washing time as an extension of play is a great way of getting into good hand washing habits.
Hand sanitizer is a wonderful and effective addition to the arsenal against bugs which cause infections – especially tummy upsets. Keep a bottle in the car so they clean their hands immediately after school or other activities, and before you hand them any food or snack.
Dressing in layers even on warmer days helps children stay healthier. It's often tempting to dress children too lightly during the winter when the weather is unseasonably warm. Many inside spaces are still cold and drafty, so insisting that your child wear or be able to add a shirt with longs sleeves, and/or a sweater when needed, will go a long way toward keeping them healthy.
Covering their mouths when sneezing or coughing is still high on the list of things to do, and covering with your arm rather than your hand is better. Sneezing and coughing into hands and then touching door handles, light switches, TV remote controls, phones, and other hands just spread the germs. Using a tissue probably keeps hands 50% cleaner.
Keep small boxes of tissues open and ready in every room. Again, let your child help pick out the designs on the boxes. This may seem excessive, but often children (and adults) know they need a tissue, but can't find one. Stock their coat pockets with extra tissues so they are sure to have one on the playground or in your car and when out and about. Having a tissue available when they need it is a simple but effective way to stop the spread of germs. I remember at school the class being rewarded when we all remembered to bring in a tissue or handkerchief!
If your child is unwell, and in particular if they have a temperature, keep them off nursery.
Your child’s eyes and activity level are good indicators of how unwell they may be. If their eyes look heavy even though they are awake, and are content to just sit and be unusually quiet, keep them home to avoid exposing them to yet more infections which they will certainly encounter in their daily activities. This will help the others in the class or nursery to stay well too. Children's immune systems are generally very robust and your child will bounce back pretty quickly. They may need lots of rest, and a diet that includes lots of fluids.
One of the questions commonly asked is whether vitamin supplements in the Winter are of any benefit. Generally all children are well nourished and whether initially breast or bottle-fed, vitamin deficiencies severe enough to cause disease are rare.
However, it is well documented that in the Winter months Vitamin D levels will halve, and especially in children of ethnic origin there is a real risk of developing significant enough Vitamin D deficiency to cause some evidence of rickets.
However more importantly there is growing evidence that Vitamin D is essential for normal functioning of the immune system, as it seems to act to regulate the immune response, especially important in the possible prevention of auto immune diseases. Whilst some of this is speculation, increasingly there is good evidence to support the view that it is important to maintain satisfactory vitamin D levels all year round.
A dose of about 600Units per day is sufficient to prevent significant Vitamin D deficiency in the winter, and can be found in most brands of children’s vitamin drops available in chemists and supermarkets.
