Tips for Healthy Kids

Dur­ing this time unique time as the world con­tin­ues to nav­i­gate the COVID-19 sit­u­a­tion, Quin­cy Med­ical Group’s Dr. Samuel Healy pro­vides sim­ple tips to keep kids healthy and encour­ages par­ents to keep their child’s health­care a priority.

When you ask par­ents what they want for their kids, the com­mon response is for them to be healthy and hap­py. Quin­cy Med­ical Group Pedi­a­tri­cian Dr. Samuel Healy says the first and most impor­tant step toward this is love and support.

“Every inter­ac­tion with your child is impor­tant. Chil­dren are tak­ing in cues from their par­ents all the time, and hav­ing love and affec­tion will make all the dif­fer­ence in a child’s life,” he shared. ​“Spend­ing qual­i­ty time togeth­er will have a last­ing impres­sion on both you and your child.”

Dr. Healy offers the fol­low­ing tips for parents.

Sched­ule Reg­u­lar Well-Child Vis­its
Pedi­a­tri­cian vis­its are not just for times your child is sick. Dur­ing well-child vis­its, your pedi­a­tri­cian will track your child’s growth and devel­op­ment, pro­vide pre­ven­tive screen­ings, and answer ques­tions or con­cerns par­ents may have.

“Reg­u­lar well-checks are impor­tant to make sure your child is healthy and to make sure there’s noth­ing going on we might be miss­ing,” explained Dr. Healy. Dur­ing well-child vis­its, your pedi­a­tri­cian will track your child’s growth and devel­op­ment, pro­vide pre­ven­tive screen­ings, and answer ques­tions or con­cerns par­ents may have.

Dur­ing this time unique time as the world con­tin­ues to nav­i­gate the COVID-19 sit­u­a­tion, Dr. Healy said it is impor­tant to not delay your child’s health­care and QMG is here to offer a safe envi­ron­ment for families.

“The pedi­atrics team is tak­ing extra pre­cau­tions to ensure your fam­i­ly is safe. This includes offer­ing Tele­health vis­its, or vir­tu­al vis­its, for many issues includ­ing med­ica­tion checks, hos­pi­tal fol­low-ups, rash­es, con­sti­pa­tion, and mild ill­ness­es. We have also imple­ment­ed car wait­ing allow­ing fam­i­lies to check-in from their car and wait there until an exam room is ready.”

Read to Your Child
Read­ing to your child and lim­it­ing screen time helps chil­dren devel­op crit­i­cal lan­guage and lis­ten­ing skills.

“When a child is giv­en screen time for sev­er­al hours a day, they are just lis­ten­ing and not talk­ing, which could poten­tial­ly lead to speech delay,” Dr. Healy shares. ​“Read­ing to kids is so impor­tant, no mat­ter how old they are. I rec­om­mend read­ing every sin­gle day and mak­ing it part of your routine.”

Estab­lish a Rou­tine
Struc­ture is impor­tant for chil­dren and fam­i­lies, espe­cial­ly when it comes to night­time. Through­out the day, Dr. Healy rec­om­mends keep­ing your child’s nap­ti­mes at the same time each day. This rou­tine will help when bed­time comes.

“Start with bath time or qui­et time, turn down the lights a lit­tle, and read to your kids right before bed. Then put your infant or tod­dler to bed with­out being ful­ly asleep, so they can self-soothe and fall asleep on their own,” he said.

Healthy Diet
Kids should get five serv­ings of fruits and veg­eta­bles a day. Dr. Healy explains it can take 10 to 15 times of a child hav­ing and look­ing at some­thing before they’ll actu­al­ly try it and like it.

“Offer your child fruits and veg­eta­bles at every meal. Even if they don’t want to eat them, it’s impor­tant that you con­tin­u­al­ly offer them,” he said. ​“It takes per­sis­tence, and you have to do it over and over again to devel­op the taste.”

Mon­i­tor Screen Time
The Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Pedi­atrics rec­om­mends no screen time for kids under 18 months. Those rec­om­men­da­tions change as chil­dren grow, but Dr. Healy says being active and lim­it­ing tech­nol­o­gy is ben­e­fi­cial for all ages.

“Play­ing with your child helps devel­op their phys­i­cal capa­bil­i­ties, includ­ing their fine and gross motor skills. Sim­ple activ­i­ties such as play­ing games or going out­side will help enhance those skills and pro­vide some qual­i­ty time for you and your child.”

For more infor­ma­tion on our pedi­atrics team and ser­vices, call 217−222−6550, ext. 3333 or vis­it quin​cymed​group​.com.