Your responsibilities as a parent begin long before your child is even born. The choices you make as a parent (before and after their birth and during their early years) for your children’s health affect them throughout their life. This is why the decisions you make for your child’s health should be made with plenty of thought and information.
Let’s talk about what you can do to keep your child’s health up to date and where you can go to seek the expertise of a child specialist to achieve and maintain your child’s health.
Decide on What to Feed Them
After birth, children need well-balanced food for good health, growth, and development. Their early food consists of milk, whether human milk or formula milk.
So, as a parent, it’s on you and your partner to decide whether you want to breastfeed your child or give them formula milk. Human milk is naturally rich in a variety of nutrients and immune factors to protect your child from a variety of illnesses, while formula milk also has nutrients your child needs to grow and thrive.
Keep Them Immunized
Immunization is a vital tool that prevents your child from potentially life-threatening illnesses. Vaccines work by introducing your child’s immune system to a small bit of dead or live-attenuated germs, helping their immune system learn how to respond to the germs when encountered in the future.
Vaccines aren’t just recommended at specific time points within the first 2 years of life, but they are also recommended to older children and adolescents to protect them from a variety of illnesses, such as seasonal flu and covid-19.
Make the Right Dietary Choices
A well-balanced diet is crucial to achieving and maintaining good children’s health – and the dietary choices you make during your child’s early years heavily impact their eating patterns when they’re older.
An unbalanced diet can contribute to various health conditions like diabetes, obesity, heart disease, etc.
So, to achieve optimal health for your child, give them a diet rich in vitamins, nutrients, and minerals.
Encourage Them to Exercise
In America, approximately 1 in 6 children have obesity – a complex disease that gives rise to many other health conditions. So, for the good health of your child, get them moving.
Physical activity or exercise sets the stage for a lifetime of health. You can talk to your child’s pediatrician to find out what type of activity is good for them according to their health and age.
Foster Emotional Well-being
Good mental health is not only crucial for adults but also for children. Children with good mental health and emotional well-being are more likely to function well in the home, school, and social environment.
So, as a parent, you should also promote your child’s mental health. You can foster your child’s mental health and emotional well-being by talking about feelings, avoiding negativity or negative remarks, boosting their self-esteem, encouraging them, and considering their goals.
Consult a Pediatrician
A pediatrician is a medical doctor who can help achieve and maintain your child’s health. They not only keep track of their physical and mental growth and development but also treat their health problems and protect them from various illnesses.
So, you should get them a pediatrician who provides them with all the necessary services they may need to achieve optimal health.
Children’s Health in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida
As your child grows and develops, they need regular pediatric care. Our highly experienced and compassionate pediatricians at Children’s Medical Center provide the best quality care to help your child achieve optimal health. They offer services like:
- Well-care visit
- Sick visits
- Vaccination and immunizations
- Sports and school physicals
- Mental health services
- Behavioral and developmental services
- Nutrition recommendations
To set up a consultation with one of our pediatricians, call us today at a location nearest to you.
