Dubai: It’s almost a week since schools started and students slowly settle into the rigorous academic routine.
How your child adjusts to the rigorous new schedule and performs optimally will depend on his physical and psychological health, health specialists said.
Watch: How to keep your child healthy for school days? Gulf News Senior Reporter Suchitra Bajpai Chaudhary explains.
From catching the early morning school bus to adjusting to new faces at class, meeting homework deadlines and bracing for tests children have to step up on their performance quotient and ensure they do not have frequent absenteeism due to poor physical or mental health.
In 2014, the Ministry of Education added 10 extra days, raising the school-going days to 189. No student is allowed to be absent for more than 21 days unless there are extraordinary circumstances.
So, how do parents prepare their children for the optimal best for the next eight months of school?
“For a child’s immune system to remain strong, there are many contributing factors, Dr Nazneen Mansouri, specialist paediatrician at iCare Clinic told Gulf News. Dr Mansouri sees many schoolchildren coming in with common problems of cough, cold and fever as soon as schools reopen. “The child is born with natural antibodies to combat infection and this is strengthened by a balanced diet, a high standard of oral and personal hygiene, good, restful sleep to keep stress levels down, exercise and a healthy home environment.”
Let’s look at how this can be achieved for your child.
Is your child eating right?
Children need to have high energy food that has no junk value and low glycaemic index (GI) that allows slow absorption of sugar so that they do not have too many sugar highs or drops that can leave them fatigued. It is important to start their day with a good wholesome breakfast.
Juliot Vinolia, nutritionist and clinical dietitian at Medeor 24/7 Hospital, told Gulf News: “It is important to give them meals that have moderate carbohydrates such as wholemeal bread or rice, proteins such as eggs, lentils, fish and dairy, some health fats such as nuts, avocado, and some vitamins including calcium and zinc. Mothers must avoid giving kids too much of processed food that comes in packets such as cakes, biscuits, fruit juices and chips as these have chemicals and preservatives.”
Breakfast is an important meal of the day and since children do not have the luxury of a leisurely breakfast on weekdays, Vinolia suggests fruit and nut smoothies with low-fat probiotic yoghurt or a scrambled egg with wholemeal toast sandwich.
Around 10am, schoolchildren must have a fresh fruit and cheese.
Lunch should have either chicken or fish or lentils, yoghurt and some vegetable accompanied by wholemeal bread or rice, she recommends.
“At 4.30pm, usually when older children return from school, it is important to give them a high energy snack of at least 200 kcal. This can be a hummus or another bean wrap with veggies or baked potatoes.
“At 8pm they must have a light easy-to-digest meal such a as fish fingers, pasta, with some part of probiotic dairy included in this meal [such as yoghurt or cheese].
“Avoid giving treats to children close to major meal times otherwise they are not likely to be hungry for a nutritious meal. Treat time can be limited to tea time,” added Vinolia.
Hydration plays an important role in keeping the child from being tired. Vinolia explained that sometimes children feel tired and fatigued despite a decent meal as dehydration can cause those symptoms “Make sure your child carries a bottle of water and has plenty of high water content foods such as watercress, cucumber, watermelon and other fruits,” she added.
Keep them physically healthy too
When a child steps into school after a long vacation he meets a host of other friends all of whom are back from vacation and may be carrying pathogens. The new academic session can mean exposure to a lot of infectious viruses and bacteria.
Dr Mansouri says: “Children often fall sick with recurrent cough, cold, fever and allergies. While allergies could be part of their genetics, the other illnesses can be controlled if they have a strong immune system. For this is it is important to inculcate the habit of maintaining good personal hygiene. A simple thing as a handwash is very important and a child must cleanse his hands before every meal, after he returns home from school and after he returns from playing outside. Hands must be cleaned even after acts of blowing the nose or handling pets to avoid all sources of infection.”
Handwash is a simple routine of rubbing hands with a good antibacterial soap for 20 seconds and rinsing it off. This breaks the chain of infection and stops its spread. Parents must encourage all aspects of personal hygiene such as a proper bath before and after school, hair need to be washed and cleansed and free of lice, nails need to be trimmed and the uniform must be a fresh one every day. This will go a long way in keeping all illnesses at bay, explained Dr Mansouri.
Is your child getting enough sleep?
Most children who have a disruption of routine due to the long vacation struggle to wake up in the morning and find it difficult to be attentive in class. Lack of sleep impacts their natural immune response. Dr Mansouri explained: “Children in the prime school-going age require 9-11 hours of sleep. Both the quality and quantity of sleep is important to ensure that your child is alert and active during the day.”
For good quality of sleep parents need to ensure that sleep hours are at a consistent and regular time and the sleep environment is comfortable with no television or computers in the child’s room. Children must not be given any caffeine before sleep and parents must make sure they brush teeth, wash and sleep in comfortable nightclothes.
Dr Mansouri elaborated: “The child should have enough non-Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep which is sound sleep where the heart rate is the resting rate and the respiratory and circulatory system are working at a steady mean rate. REM sleep is the kind children get just before their regular waking hour. In this kind of sleep the mind gets active and the closed eyes begin to move. The child needs to get non-REM sleep during the night. However, with video games, phones, etc, distracting the child, we find children suffering from a lack of non-REM sleep which leaves the child feeling tired through the day”.
For other health parameters to be maintained, parents must ensure the home is comfortable, bright and cheerful, free of smoke, etc. Soft toys, carpets, air-conditioned ducts must be cleaned well to avoid the development of moulds and other allergens that can cause skin or respiratory tract allergies in children.
Exercise is an important aspect of childhood, therefore parents must ensure their children are encouraged to do physical activity every day and are not confined to the chair or looking at their phone at all times. Childhood obesity is quite high in the UAE and it is impacting the child’s health and his studies.
Check your child’s stress levels
Besides physical health, mental health and wellness are important as unnecessary stress in a child’s life can trigger allergies and illnesses. Dr Samineh Shaheen, cultural psychologist specialising in child psychology, told Gulf News: “Different children experience different levels of anxiety which can be transformed into stress and there are individual cultural differences in how kids cope with the stress. When younger children resume school the biggest stress for them is the separation anxiety as all along the summer months their mothers have been with them and they also suffer stress if they are not toilet trained. Older children have psycho-social anxiety, the stress of meeting a new teacher, a new class with many new faces and the issue of acceptance, besides the fear of bullying can also cause be a source of great stress.
“So it is important that parents must work hard to help children slip into the school schedule easily, preparing them in advance and also making sure their routines are regularised within the first fortnight of beginning the new academic year, “Settling in’ is an important aspect. Any source of anxiety that the child may have had in the previous year which remains unresolved must be revisited, discussed gently by parents and decisions taken about how it will be handled.
Anxiety starts from unpredictability and uncontrollability and therefore it is important for parents to be hands-on in the first few weeks with the children, encouraging a school tour on weekends, organising play dates with classmates, having casual meetings with teachers to help familiarise the child with the new environment.
Sunaina Vohra, parenting life coach, suggests the following tips to parents
1. Talk to your child about the previous year at school and set realistic goals for the new term by building activities to achieve those goals
2. Parents need to help their child maintain the routine and help him with settling into the new environment
3. Set realistic goals for all areas of the child’s life — personal, academic and social
4. Focus on developing skills like self-confidence, time management and organisational skills
5. Have open healthy conversations at home that will help nurture a child’s emotional intelligence
6. Teach the child that discipline and diligence are important and that working hard towards a goal is important even if the outcome may be less than satisfactory. This will motivate the child to put in his 100 per cent in his work and not be anxious about the result.
