Top 10 Ways to Protect Young Children from Seasonal Weather

Properly keeping warm during winter plays a crucial role in preventing respiratory-related illnesses in children. However, layering clothes excessively doesn't necessarily mean staying warm. It's essential to dress children in multiple layers to better retain warmth, allowing them to remove one or two layers if they feel overheated from physical activity.

Avoid letting children get wet in the rain, keep them warm without overdressing. Parents should dress children in multiple layers to better retain warmth, allowing them to remove 1 or 2 layers when feeling hot. Especially, regularly provide socks, gloves, masks, scarves, and knit hats for children, as these are very sensitive areas to cold weather. Furthermore, parents must absolutely limit taking children to windy, drafty places, as it can make children more susceptible to colds.

Ensuring cleanliness for children is one of the most important and effective measures in preventing diseases for children. Maintaining cleanliness for children includes the following:

• Encourage children to wash their hands frequently, before meals and food preparation, after using the toilet, after playing, as it is a simple habit that helps prevent many diseases.
• Dishes must be washed clean and dried; baby bottles must be boiled. Toys should be regularly cleaned and then sun-dried, not left on the floor. The floor can be cleaned with solutions like Chloramine B…
• Keep the house dry and well-ventilated. When there is sunlight, open windows, pull curtains to let in as much sunlight as possible. Sweep away dust, stagnant water pools, kill cockroaches, mosquitoes, let children sleep under a mosquito net even during the day.
• Humid climates create conditions for mosquitoes to breed, leading to an increase in dengue fever. Currently, dengue fever outbreaks have not stopped. Infectious disease departments in hospitals are still overwhelmed. Therefore, parents should dress children in long clothes, wear socks and shoes when going to places with many mosquitoes. Especially, do not let children enter dengue fever outbreak areas.
• Moreover, you can use mosquito repellent products applied to the skin for children, or use essential oils such as lemon, mint, and eucalyptus to repel mosquitoes.

Parents should limit their children's exposure to places with heavy dust and harmful substances. Children should wear masks whenever they go outside. Avoid exposing children to cigarette smoke, and ensure the cleanliness of the surrounding environment. Respiratory mucous membranes such as the throat area are easily damaged and invaded by bacteria, viruses when dry.

In addition, parents should plant more greenery around the house. Regularly clean up the house, especially the child's bedroom and toys, to ensure a clean and airy living environment for the child.

When children show unusual symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, bloody stools, poor feeding, or suddenly refusing to breastfeed... parents should take them to a healthcare facility for timely diagnosis, advice, and treatment.

To prevent spreading to the community and other children, if a child has these diseases, they should not be sent to school or other public places.

Parents must understand that a child's immunity (the child's immune system) plays a crucial role in protecting the child's body from disease-causing factors. Therefore, to ensure that a child has enough health to fight off external disease-causing factors, it is necessary to prepare the child's immune system to be strong and resilient from within.

Here are some ways to boost a child's immunity:

• Breastfeed for infants still being breastfed. Breast milk is a valuable and nutrient-rich source with the best immune support. Infants exclusively breastfed for the first two years of life are much better equipped to combat illness. Nutritionists recommend breastfeeding for as long as possible.
• Ensure complete vaccination for the child.
• Provide the child with adequate and balanced nutrition, increase fruits and vegetables. Encourage appropriate physical exercise for the child's age group.
• Ensure sufficient sleep time.
• Avoid indiscriminate use of antibiotics.
• Consider enhancing the child's immune system with immune-boosting products (with a doctor's advice).

A child's immune system is best restored when they have adequate rest and sleep after a day of play and activity. Fatigue increases the risk of illness in children. Make an effort to ensure that your child goes to bed on time, limits TV time before sleep, and creates conditions for a good night's sleep, which will enhance their immunity.

While sleeping, parents can regulate their child's body temperature by adding or removing layers of clothing depending on the weather. Children often kick their blankets off while sleeping and may not consciously cover themselves again, so it's essential to keep them warm to prevent colds and respiratory illnesses. Two vital areas to keep warm while a child sleeps are the abdomen and feet. If the abdomen gets cold, the child may experience diarrhea and stomachaches. Additionally, keeping the soles of the feet warm by wearing an extra pair of socks is crucial.

Drinking water is essential for maintaining life as the human body is composed of up to 80% water. Drinking enough water every day is highly beneficial for health, especially for children. Many people believe that only in the summer do children lose a lot of water, but in reality, the body also loses water in winter, while children tend to drink less water in winter because they don't feel thirsty.

Or many parents believe that giving their children milk instead of water every day is sufficient. But that's not entirely true. If they don't drink enough water, children are prone to illness. So, let's aim for the following benefits:

• Brighter eyes
• Deeply cleansed pores, reduced acne
• Rosy, radiant skin
• Faster hair growth
• Internal skin nourishment, avoiding dry, cracked skin due to weather
• Increased energy and freshness in the body.

One factor that parents often unintentionally overlook is maintaining their own health. In addition to implementing direct winter illness prevention measures for children, those around, who have close contact with the child, also need to protect themselves. The reason for doing this is to avoid carrying diseases and inadvertently transmitting them to the child. Ensure that you also take thorough illness prevention measures for yourself just as you do for your child.

If unfortunately falling ill, parents should quickly isolate themselves from the children, limit contact: hugging, kissing, etc., to prevent transmission of the illness. In children, due to weak immunity and immature immune systems, there is a high risk of contracting some dangerous diseases in winter. Therefore, do not let parents become a source of illness transmission to the children.

During transitional weather, maintaining a stable temperature is crucial. Avoiding sudden changes in temperature that lead to quick colds is essential. Misuse or improper use of air conditioning and heating systems is a significant factor contributing to the increase in respiratory illnesses in children, especially those in urban areas. Therefore, preventing sudden changes in temperature is an equally effective preventive measure against diseases.

In addition to maintaining room temperature at a moderate level, parents should also be careful not to let the child's body temperature change suddenly. When bringing the child in or out of a room, allow the child to stay in an intermediate space for a while to acclimatize to the temperature in the new environment.

One prominent characteristic of children is their love for movement. They move to explore the myriad facets of life. However, during transitional weather, children tend to be less active, leading to decreased immunity and increased susceptibility to illness. Health experts suggest that the colder the weather, the more children need to exercise to strengthen their bodies.

Therefore, to prevent illness in children during transitional weather, parents should encourage children to exercise properly through various forms such as outdoor play (in less windy areas) or indoors with children; assigning children some household chores like cooking, rearranging items; taking walks, riding bikes;… An important note is that parents must maintain this habit for the training to be effective for children.