How To Keep A Healthy Home Environment For Kids
Your home is your haven, and a place where you and your family feel most comfortable. It’s where your kids spend the majority of both their downtime and playtime, so keeping a healthy home is especially essential for their well-being. It also reflects the overall energy your children will have, since a healthy child is a happy one after all! In this blog, we’ll give you some great tips on how to keep a healthy home for both you and your little ones.
Take Your Shoes Off
Our shoes carry us where we need to go on a daily basis. They are in all sorts of environments and with that, comes the dirt, bacteria and other foreign substances you do not want to be tracked into your home. A simple way to reduce the bacteria coming into your home is to make sure everyone takes off their shoes upon entering the
house. This is especially important if you have babies or toddlers who are crawling around and exploring. If it’s on the floor, chances are they’re touching, eating or licking it!
Wash Your Hands
Our hands touch all sorts of objects and surfaces every day, so undoubtedly our hands are where a lot of bacteria lie. When getting home from the day, make it a routine to have your kids wash their hands before they eat or play. And let them see that you are doing the same! Are your kids not lathering for long enough? A great tip is to have them rub their hands for as long as it takes them to sing the ‘Happy Birthday’ song, to ensure their hands are thoroughly clean.
One of the biggest struggles as a parent is the dreaded cold and flu season. During the colder weather, viruses are easily contracted. It sometimes seems impossible to avoid. One of the simplest ways to fight the flu (you guessed it), is to frequently wash your hands! Make it a habit to keep their little hands clean and bacteria free. Such a small step can go a long way for your kids’ health.
Dust It Away
Air quality is fundamental for a healthy respiratory system, especially for your kids. Dust can be tracked from outside, and when brought into the home, it can attract dust mites and reduce the air quality. This can especially pose a problem for children with asthma, seeing that poorer air quality can affect their breathing. To get more ventilation in your house, crack a window open in the warmer weather for some fresh air! When vacuuming, it’s essential to clean the filter and change the vacuum bag, so dust and dirt isn’t ejected back out into the air.
A great activity to encourage your children to get involved with, is to help clean. It can be enjoyable when doing it together! When they get involved in picking up after their toys, clothes and other items, they learn to understand the importance of keeping their space clean. Delegate a bit of time every week to make sure that furniture is dusted, vacuumed and tidied, so everyone can breathe happy!
Safe Cleaning Products
Keeping a clean home is important, but the products and chemicals used to do the job can often be harsh for your little ones to be exposed to. Using safe and eco-friendly cleaning products are less harsh for your body and the earth. This is especially a great alternative if anyone in your house has allergies to certain fragrances and dyes in traditional cleaning products, which can often cause skin irritation.
Did you know that just like outdoor pollution, your home is also exposed to toxic pollution too? Using eco-friendly products helps to decrease the exposure of toxic pollution in your home. There are so many safe and eco-friendly cleaning products available on the market. You’re not only helping your child’s health, but the earth’s as well!
Carbon Monoxide
This harmful gas is odorless. Even though it doesn’t have a traditional gas-like smell, colour or taste, exposure to it has serious health repercussions. Carbon monoxide poisoning can be caused by a malfunctioning furnace, water heater, dryer and even cars left running while in the garage. Children are especially vulnerable to carbon monoxide poisoning. Because of the size of their bodies, children cannot process carbon monoxide in the same way as adults, which makes exposure to the gas even more harmful.
Keep your home protected by installing carbon monoxide alarms. Just like how you would a smoke alarm, make sure a carbon monoxide alarm is installed on every floor of your home. Plug them in at a safe distance from your appliances and next to your sleeping areas. It’s important to remember to never use a gas-burning appliance inside your home, and keep children away from them at all times. If you keep your car in the garage, make sure you exit the car immediately after turning it on.
Safe Drinking Water
Not all water quality is the same everywhere, and can sometimes carry pollutants that are harmful to ingest. Even if you live somewhere with safe drinking water, there are always some pollutants that tap water carries. Getting a filtration system helps to ensure you’re getting rid of a lot of chemicals and contaminants from your drinking water. There are many options available to filter your drinking water, like units that can attach to your faucet, or ones that can be connected to your plumbing system. Filtering your water is also helpful to the environment, as you’re eliminating the use of plastic water bottles. Happy hydrating!
Eat Clean
One of the number one ways to keep your kids healthy, starts from what they put into their bodies. Your children are growing everyday, so to fuel their consistent growth, they need to fuel their bodies with good nutrients. Getting your kids to eat healthy however, is a different story. Don’t let the struggle deter you from keeping them eating the good stuff!
- Include them in meal time/meal prep and school lunches, so the food they put into their mouths aren’t so foreign to them. When kids have some sort of involvement in what they eat, it helps them to create better choices for themselves.
- Be a good role model for them. When your kids see you eating nutritious food, it sets a good example for how they should treat their eating habits too.
- Go grocery shopping with them. When kids are able to visualize what’s around them, they’re able to get accustomed to the different foods that are available. Communicating and brainstorming with them on different meal and snack options, is a great way to get them on the track to eating different foods. Reading labels and packages together, is an excellent lesson for your child to understand what to look for in healthy food.
How NannyTax Can Help You!
Keeping your home a healthy one is something that everyone can get involved with, your nanny too! You are often so busy throughout your day with the hectic nature of everyday life, that preparing pay statements for your nanny can seem like a task you just can’t make the time for. That’s where NannyTax comes in! The great thing about what we do, is that we take care of payroll for your nanny/caregiver down to the last detail, so you can have the luxury of knowing you’re in the best hands possible. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to learn about the different pricing options and plans we offer. We can’t wait to hear from you!
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