Training Children to Be Healthy

With the noted rising annual obesity levels among children, it is increasingly becoming important to teach your children to be healthy more than ever. Kids who are obese and overweight are more likely to contract illnesses like diabetes and heart problems. Being overweight or obese is not a healthy condition for a child, and it is extremely difficult for children to overcome this problem on their own. When the child becomes mature enough to decide and face the problem, their eating and activity habits may have already been well-ingrained that they end up spending most of their lives struggling to break the pattern.

As a parent, it is very important that you set an example for your children when it comes to being healthy. Eating healthy food should be the rule while fast foods, cake and candy are only exceptions which can be enjoyed on occasions. If they are not in the cupboard, they can’t tempt you or the children.

Be sure that the consumption of fatty foods are minimized while encouraging your children to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meat and poultry, and wholegrain carbohydrates. If you set a standard of serving healthy meals to the whole family, anything unhealthy becomes an exception. Physical activity is an important part of a healthy lifestyle – encourage your children to be active, even if it is just throwing a ball around the yard. Skipping, hopping and running are activities that are easily blended into various games. Teach your child ‘old-fashioned’ games like hop-scotch, tag and handball to encourage them to engage in physical activity. Once they start playgroup or pre-school, there may be organized activities and sports that they can take part in. Tell them how active you were during your younger days by showing old photos of mom in her cheerleading outfit or of dad playing football.

Just as you should read to, with and front of your child to encourage them to read, you should do the same with physical activity. Play with them, support them when they take part in sport or other physical activities, and set an example by exercising yourself.

Remember to keep the emphasis on health not on being thin or losing weight. Your children need to appreciate that a balanced and healthy lifestyle is better for everyone in the family. Parents stand to gain a lot from being fit and healthy because aside from feeling better they will also be able to lead a better quality way of life to enjoy with their children and even grandchildren.

As parents it is our duty to teach our children as best we can. Even though there is no definitive guide to parenting, keeping your family healthy would be well worth the effort. Don’t give in to your kids when they ask you for the same privilege as their friends who are allowed by their parents to eat whatever they like. Explain to them that what the other kids are eating are actually not very healthy foods. Teach your children to be healthy from day one you won’t regret it.

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How To Make Baby Blankets

Baby blankets are easy to make at home. This is a way for you to save money the next time you need to buy a gift for a baby shower, or if you want to welcome a new addition to the family.

How To Sew A Baby Blanket

When using flannel or fleece to make your baby blanket, all you need to do is cut and hem. You can use about a yard of fabric, with the width ranging between 40 and 50 inches.

A good way to put a personal touch on the blanket’s design is to embroider a design or the name of the baby. If you do not have embroidery skills, buy a cute embroidered patch to iron or sew onto the blanket.

For a warmer blanket, use a layer of cotton batting between two layers of flannel or one flannel and one printed cotton fabric.

How To Crochet A Baby Blanket

The usual process for crocheting a baby blanket would be to start by creating a chain that matches the blanket’s width before forming rows of double crochet stitch. This could be all one color or you could change the yarn every few rows to form stripes, or use multi colored yarn. After finishing the full sized blanket, then you can work around the edges, making three chains in each of the four corners for a clean-looking trim.

Alternatively, crochet different colored squares of 3-5 rows each and attach them together. Utilize the concept of contrasting colors by using about two or so pastel colors in the mix.

You can stand out with your design by following a pattern. You have to understand all the stitches that would be required to complete the pattern. You wouldn’t want to waste all your hard work by discovering that the one specific stitch needed for the design’s success is the one stitch you cannot master.

A hand knitted baby blanket can be an alternative to crochet. Use the plain knitting stitch (not knit and purl) or for a more solid blanket, moss stitch (one knit one purl, doing a plain stitch where there was a purl in the previous row and vice versa). Again you can either knit the whole blanket at once in one color or stripes, or you can knit squares and then sew them together later.

Using the method of joining individual squares, you can even make the blanket grow along with the baby by adding more squares as the child gets bigger.

It is important to choose your yarn carefully. Don’t buy anything that would be an irritant to the baby. Be wary of the fabric used – it’s better to go with pure cotton blankets for babies with sensitive skin, and to avoid synthetics at all costs.

Made with love, beautiful baby blankets can be something that parents and baby will treasure all their lives.

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