How to Boost a Child’s Immune System Naturally

Whether at the park, the mall or indoors, young children often explore their surroundings. This means coming in contact with a variety of surfaces and substances, as well as the germs they harbour. While you can’t stop your child from getting exposed to these germs, there are some pretty effective ways you can strengthen their body to fight sickness. So today, we tell you how to boost a child’s immune system naturally.

How to Boost a Child’s Immune System Naturally

1. Replace Processed Food with Whole Food.

In today’s world, processed food is everywhere. Ayurveda strongly encourages staying away from processed items, but eating fresh, whole and organic food instead. Such food is bound to make your child healthy in every way as well as contribute to a robust immune system. It’s best to habituate your child to eating fruits and vegetables from a young age. They are loaded with the essentials that build a strong, healthy body that can easily shield itself from sickness and disease. Plus, your child will be mentally as well as emotionally healthier too. You can find tons of recipes online to make fruits and veggies more interesting and tasty to eat.

2. Include Probiotics and Vitamin D in Diet.

Parents are often on the look out for food to increase immunity against cold and cough. One of the best ways to strengthen children is to feed them probiotics, which are healthy bacteria. They work their magic by making sure the child’s gut has sufficient flora. This improves the ability to fight infection. You can either mix probiotics in food or if your child is old enough, feed it in the form of pills. In addition to probiotics, having sufficient vitamin D goes a long way in boosting immunity. So let your child have enough Sun light as well as consume foods fortified with it, such as milk, cereals, spinach and orange juice.

3. Let Your Child Sleep Well.

Sound and sufficient sleep is key to a child’s immune system development. Ayurveda, as well as modern science links sleep to a range of benefits, including better immunity. Other benefits are improved moods, higher ability to tackle stress, better brain functioning and better growth. While sleep deprivation weakens the immune system, a well maintained sleep cycle does wonders for building healthy immunity. This applies not only to children, but adults too. Infants require around 18 hours of sleep, toddlers need around 12, and children under five require around 10. The remaining need anywhere between 7 to 9 hours, depending on their constitution or dosha. Here’s a helpful article on tips to sleep better.

4. Reduce Tech-related Activity.

In the age of technology, child-friendly gadgets are abundant. At young ages, it’s easy to get hooked on to mobile phones, cartoons and games. However tempting they may be for your child, it’s in their best interest for their time spent with technology to be kept under strict control. Limit tech time to an hour a day. And help your child develop other habits like sports, music, painting, yoga and meditation. Get your child used to enjoying the outdoors – trees, the breeze, the Sun, socialising, etc. This will not only contribute to a healthier immune system, but benefit your child’s mind, body and soul in other ways.

Now that you are aware of how to boost a child’s immune system naturally, you can start bringing positive changes and guide your child to a healthy Ayurvedic lifestyle.