Don’t Make your Kids Sick this Fall

It’s that time of year again. 90% of the time, you make sure that your kids are eating their vegetables, getting enough sleep, and not overdoing it on the sugar, but then October hits and it all goes out the window. Here are 6 reasons your kids typically get sick around this time of year, and what can be done to combat these unavoidable parts of the fall season.

1. Daylight Savings: Nothing like losing sleep AND staying up late to mess with your kids’ ability to fight off sickness. Make sure they are sleeping well or you’ll soon witness the consequences.
2. Candy Binge: Want to see what massive inflammation does to a child’s digestive and nervous systems? Tell them they can have as much candy as they want on Halloween. Go out, have a good time, but donate that candy to your local dentist office where they will send treats off to our troops abroad, or throw the processed sugar into the bowels of hell where it came from.
3. Cold and Damp weather shift: When the body is working hard to maintain body temperature, it’s more difficult to fight off bugs that you encounter. Make sure that if you are going out this Halloween to wear appropriate outerwear over your costume (even though it may not be the “cute” look, you’ll thank me later.)
4. Family Stress: Around this time of year, just the ANTICIPATION of family get togethers, filled with political and religious discussion and drama has many parents visibly anxious this time of year. Watch how you are coping, because your kids see and internalize this anxiety, even if you don’t think you are putting it out there.
5. Lack of physical activity: As the weather gets colder, it’s natural for the kids to enter into their caves of Fortnite and Instagram, never to emerge for exercise until the spring season. Don’t let this become the norm–limit screen time and replace it with physical exercise before getting to relax.
6. Less Sunlight: Basically, Seasonal Affect Disorder (S.A.D.) will prime your kids to desire to do less, while simultaneously causing them to seek comfort in unhealthy foods. Outdoor time is even more important in the winter, as well as Vitamin D supplementation to improve overall immune function.

Sun Tzu, in “The Art of War,” instructed that if we could understand our enemy, then we would win. This fall, your enemy is anything that lowers the defenses of your immune system, so now that you know what they are, hopefully you can plan accordingly and skip the sickness this fall.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels