If your child gets sick a lot in the Fall and in the Winter you may be wondering how you can use summer break to strengthen your child's immunity. The truth is you can use summer break to strengthen your child's immunity with some simple healthy habits. The summer is a great time to focus on health because your schedule is not as hectic and there are so many healthy foods available during the season.
There is a school of thought that says children really need to start building their immune system in the early summer time so that they are healthy and ready to go back to school with all the germ exposures. In reality, it's never a bad time to adopt a whole foods diet!
Sunshine for Vitamin D
One of the best ways to keep your immune system strong is to make sure that you have adequate levels of vitamin D. In the winter time, when the sun is not as strong, our vitamin D levels can drop. During the Winter I give my children this Vitamin D supplement to keep levels up.
Use the summer sunshine as an opportunity to increase your vitamin D levels in a healthy way. Of course be sure to not overdo sun exposure. Avoid the Sun in the middle of the day and try to get early morning and afternoon sunshine. Eating a clean diet that is low in omega 6 and high in omega 3 will also help your skin's response to the sun. If your diet includes a lot of seed oils it can cause you to sunburn more easily. Avoid foods that contain canola oil, sunflower oil, and other vegetable oils. Focus on coconut oil, butter, tallow, ghee, avocado oil, and olive oil (as long as it's real olive oil).
Seasonal Fruit for Vitamin C
In general, eating a seasonal diet is healthy and supportive to the immune system. This means in the winter time there's not as much fruit in your diet because it is not seasonally available. The summertime is when you can take advantage of all the amazing fruits that are in season. Try to source locally grown organic fruits and have your children eat plenty of them in the summertime. Fruits are high in vitamin C and many other phytonutrients that help to support the immune system. This is a really easy way to help boost their vitamin levels in the summertime to prepare for the fall and back to school.
Seafood for Zinc
Another great way to increase your immunity is to include zinc in your diet. In the summer, where I live, seafood is readily available in the summertime. Think lobster rolls, shrimp, clams, cod and any other wild seafood that you can find. Seafood, especially shellfish, is very high in zinc and will help to build up yours child's zinc levels over the summer in a healthy way without supplementation.
Fermented Food for Probiotics
Probiotics are also an incredibly important part of our immune system. You may already know that fermented foods are a much better source of probiotics than supplements because there is such a high number of naturally occurring probiotic bacteria in these foods.
Pickles
Most children love pickles! This summer is a great time to buy locally grown cucumbers or grow them yourself and make your own fermented pickles. It's simple and easy to do and you can even teach your children how to do it. It's a lifelong skill that will benefit everyone's health in the long term! Feed your kids lots of pickles in the summertime.
Yogurt
Another great thing to do is to swap out ice cream for some low sugar greek yogurt and honey. Greek yogurt is loaded with probiotics and will also help populate your child's got with healthy bacteria. You can make frozen popsicles out of yogurt and fruit and children will love them. If you are trying to avoid cow's milk try this recipe for coconut milk yogurt.
Sauerkraut
If You have an adventurous child offer some sauerkraut for their summer hot dog! This will add lots of probiotic goodness to a favorite summer food. You can even make your own with freshly grown local cabbage. You don't need a lot of equipment to make sauerkraut, just a glass jar or fermentation crock and some high quality salt. Just make sure the hot dogs are nitrate free.
Herbal Teas
Herbal teas are a wonderful way to add some interesting beverages for your children that are not high in sugar. Instead of sodas or juices find some herbal teas that your children like. Some that are favorites in my house are hibiscus and mint. Hibiscus tea is very high in vitamin C and peppermint tea supports digestion and helps to keep you cool in the hot weather. I have a hibiscus tea mixture in my shop that we make often at home. Get yourself some glass pitchers that make it easy to brew iced tea. Lightly sweeten your iced tea with stevia, honey, or maple syrup. I keep a tea mixture in a jar so my children can easily make a pitcher of tea.
Exercise
Exercise is important anytime of year but with the beautiful summer weather it's easy to get outside and go for a walk. Biking, walking, rollerblading are all great activities to keep your children activity active in the summer. And swimming of course if you live near the ocean or leeks or ponds. Playing sports are also a fun way to keep your children active, take up tennis or pickleball with them and get them having fun exercising.
Adequate Sleep
Sleep is a tough one in the summer. Kids tend to want to stay up late because they don't have to get up early for school. It's okay to do this once in awhile but try not to let them get into the habit of staying up late every night. If you can let them sleep in in the morning to get extra sleep over the summer months.
Aim for 8 hours of sleep per night or more. Their bedtime may be a little bit later and their wake up time a little bit later but that's okay as long as it works with your summer schedule.
As school time gets closer try to adjust it so that getting up early for school isn't a shock to their system. Adjust their bedtime back a half an hour each night to get back to school time sleep schedule. Even better, if you can keep them on the school time sleep schedule all summer that's ideal but in reality most kids want to stay up late or in the summer!
Hydration
With all of the outdoor sun and activity make sure that you are providing enough hydration for your children. Herbal teas are wonderful way to do that and some of the healthy electrolyte powders are also a good way to get them drinking lots of water. I really like the ultima electrolyte powder, it tastes great, it's sugar-free, and it really provides a great boost to the electrolytes in your system for kids and adults
Summer Habits That Will Weaken the Immune System
It's easy to get into some habits that may not be supporting your child's immune system over the summer. If you want to use summer break to strengthen your child's immunity it's a good idea to avoid some of these habits.
- Not enough sleep – it's easy to get into a bad habit of letting kids stay up to late.
- Too much sugar – there are so many summer popular summer foods that are loaded with sugar. Ice cream, s'mores, candy shop visits…. try to keep it to a minimum.
- Hectic Schedule and Stress – use the summer break to keep a slower pace of life. Allow for time to rest.
- Neglecting Hydration – dehydration puts stress on the immune system and it's easy to get dehydrated in warmer weather. Be sure to provide lots of opportunities for your children to hydrate with healthy beverages.
- Restaurant Food – focus on making simple healthy meals at home that don't require a lot of work and avoid eating out. Almost all restaurant food is cooked in highly inflammatory vegetable oils.
Thank you for reading,
Roxanne
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