How To-120: "How to Raise a Healthy Child"

How to Raise a Healthy Child

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As we all know, weight and health is important. It is even more important to introduce good eating habits, early on in a youngsters life. Just read these tips, and your little one can grow up to be a fit and active person.

Steps

1. Instill healthy habits early on. Even when you have a baby, if the child is not introduced to sweets, candy, cookies, soda, and the like, they will not have cravings for these foods. Therefore, they won't need these types of treats as they grow older, and will be all-around healthy.
   
2. Do not reward children with sweets. If your child shows good behavior do NOT give them sweets. That just teaches the child that good behavior is only worth it, because of the sweets. Reward them with something educational, intellectual, or just a simple hug. When they grow up, they won't be so bratty, spoiled, and whining for unneeded items.
   
3. Introduce fruits and vegetables. Have a different vegetable every night. Make it fun! Maybe one night could be an Asian-themed dinner, and you could have an Asian chicken salad, or maybe an Irish dinner, and you could have potatoes.
   
4. Exercise. Play sports with your kids. At early ages sign them up for soccer, dance, volleyball, baseball, softball, football, basketball, gymnastics, tennis, golf, or any other extra-curricular activities. Keeping fit can be fun, and playing sports teaches not only athletic skills, but helps socially, and builds sharing and team work skills.
   
5. Live a healthy lifestyle all around. Make sure you and your family are healthy emotionally, physically, mentally, and so on and so forth. Being healthy isn't just skinny or fat. It is much more.
   
6. Have fun!

Tips

• Be active with your child.
  
• Play sports with the kids.
  
• Make eating healthy fun.
  
• Don't let being healthy become overly stressful.

Warnings

• Do not make being healthy so important, that the child is lacking happiness. An occasional sweet is perfectly fine, just don't let it turn into something excessive.
  
• Do not starve yourself or more importantly your children. This can lead to anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders later on in life.

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