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You better watch out, monsoon season is heading to town! We all love the monsoons, the smell of rain and the steady pitter-patter that gives us a respite from a hot and humid summer. But it’s not all fun and sprinkles where your child is concerned. From waterborne diseases like typhoid and jaundice to vector borne diseases like dengue and malaria, not to mention that common cold that just won’t go away, monsoon is also the season of the flu. And this means that although you’d like to do nothing more than drink a hot cup of chai by your window, you need to gear up for flu season. Unfortunately, germs are everywhere and can spread rapidly through droplet transmission. So even if you are taking every precaution, if your little one sits next to someone with the sniffles, they’re sure to get it too. But don’t worry, there are ways to build up their immunity to stop this from happening.
Here are our top 5 tricks to protect your kids during monsoon:
1. Having An Active Life Is A Must
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If you haven’t prioritized health and exercise as a family yet, this is your opportunity. Living an active lifestyle and moving about is great for you and your little ones. It keeps them energized and helps them build up their immune system. Exercising has many great benefits for people of all ages. It gets your blood flowing and your heart pumping. This helps all organs of your body to work better and get the blood and oxygen they need (1). It can be easy to feel languid and dull during monsoons, especially if the rain hasn’t stopped for days on end. But don’t let this discourage your little ones. Just because they can’t step out to play their favorite sport, doesn’t mean they can’t take a fun zumba class with you. Or you could get the whole family involved and play a game of twisters. Whatever it takes to get them moving!
2. Don’t Discount A Nutritious Diet
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All your efforts jumping about will do nothing if you don’t eat right. This monsoon, add some extra special immunity boosting ingredients into your kid’s meal. Add in a healthy mix of green leafy veggies. If your kids are not a fan, adding them into a fruit smoothie will work wonders. You can add in thulasi, curry leaves, a dash of turmeric and pepper to make a slightly savory smoothie and they won’t think anything of it as long as they don’t see it going into the blender. This is also the season of soups. If you’re vegan or vegetarian and the regular bone broth is out of the question, a good palak soup will do the trick!
3. Vitamin C Is Your Best Friend
Vitamin C is extremely important as it keeps body tissues such as gums, bones and blood vessels in shape. It helps your body absorb iron and has the power to heal cuts. Not to mention that they help boost immunity and maintain overall health (2). So, this monsoon season, get your kids to consume vitamin C daily. Maybe it’s in the form of a cup of orange juice or a Vitamin C tablet a day. You can also consume apples, bananas, musombis, beetroots and tomatoes. They are sure to do the trick!
4. Avoid Junk Food
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This is one tip that parents will love and your children will unfortunately, hate. To make sure that your kids stay in their prime and nothing jeopardizes their immune system, cutting out their junk food supply is necessary. This doesn’t mean that they can’t enjoy any tasty snacks. They just have to be at least semi-healthy. And thanks to all the new recipes you can find online, this shouldn’t be a hassle. You can make it a family project. Get your kids involved in backing healthy brownies or carrot chips instead of potato chips. We know that denying them their favorite foods like pizzas and burgers will be hard, but it’s best to refrain from eating outside food in order to reduce the number of germs you come in contact with.
5. The Importance Of Personal Hygiene
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The importance of personal hygiene was brought to the forefront during the Covid 19 Pandemic. Remember when we all relearned how to wash our hands the proper way? That’s because our hands are our dirtiest organ and we need to wash them in order to ensure that we don’t ingest germs. In today’s day and age, cleanliness and hygiene has taken a big role in everyone’s life, especially if you’ve got kids. Keeping them and their environment clean is important for their safety. Make sure not to keep any stagnant water at home as these become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Being a parent is hard work, no matter what season. But you do have to be extra careful during the monsoon. Would you like to add something to our monsoon precaution list? Let us know in the comments section!
