Happy, healthy parents make happy, healthy children. Encouraging children to live healthy lifestyles is each parents’ responsibility. The best way to accomplish this is founded in each of our choices to be healthy. In other words, be that role model for a healthy lifestyle. All children want to imitate parents from early childhood. Parents generally have much longer and more frequent contact with their children than any peer claiming to have influence over them. For example, teens are twice as likely to smoke cigarettes if their parents were smokers. Healthy children start with healthy parents. This may even start during pregnancy.

Recent research suggests that the food choices a mother makes during her pregnancy may set the stage for an infant's later acceptance of solid foods. Amniotic fluid surrounds the fetus, maintaining fetal temperature, and is a rich source of sensory exposure for infants. Many flavors in the maternal diet appear to be present in amniotic fluid. Taste and smell are already functional during fetal life, and because the fetus regularly swallows amniotic fluid, the first experiences with flavor occur prior to birth.

The implication of the research findings is that if we want children to learn to like and eat healthy foods such as vegetables, they need early, positive, and repeated experiences with those foods, as well as opportunities to observe others consuming those foods. The natural tendency of children to prefer sweet or salty, caloric rich foods over energy-poor but micronutrient-rich alternatives highlights the need for adult intervention to provide a varied and healthy diet.

In addition to diet, we must also model the basics of good health. The Self Care Awakening advocates four main principles for good health. Good hydration, sufficient quality sleep, monitor and reduce sugar intake to a healthy level, and take steps to reduce our body burden of environmental toxins. These are simple, easy, and effective ways to Be Healthy by Choice. For a review take a look at our 11-minute video Self Care Awakening.

The current status of children’s health is in dire need of improvement. Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1960 showed that less than 2% of children had a health condition severe enough to interfere with usual daily activities. Statistics from the American Pediatrics in 2017 reported that 54% of American children have a diagnosed chronic condition. The most common chronic diseases currently affecting children include obesity, asthma, allergies, ADD/ADHD, and autism spectrum disorders.

The Nikken Wellness Home contains many solutions for an Active Wellness lifestyle and is a great model for Healthy Families. Our next Healthy by Choice Master Class will discuss this subject, Healthy Families by Choice. Please join us and invite friends to tune in on Tuesday, May 26th at 6 pm PDT. To join the broadcast click this link and follow the prompts www.theroyalalliance.com/live, see you on Tuesday.