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Healthy Habits
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- Ensure proper nutrition (eating three meals a day and two nutritious snacks, limiting high sugar and high fat foods, eating fruits, vegetables, lean meats and low fat dairy products, including 3 servings of milk, cheese or yogurt to meet their calcium needs), regular exercise, adequate sleep (10-11 hours each night), and participation in extracurricular activities at school and in the community.
- Limit television viewing and encourage reading and storytelling.
- Practice food safety: washing fruits and vegetables and not eating undercooked meats or poultry.
- To avoid having to supplement with fluoride, use fluorinated tap water. If you are using bottled or filtered water only, then your child may need fluoride supplements (check with the health dept. or manufacturer for your water's fluoride levels).
- Brush teeth with a fluoride toothpaste twice a day and have your child seen regularly by a dentist. Also, do not put your child to sleep with a bottle, since the sugar in the formula/juice will pool around their teeth all night and cause cavities.
- Supervise your child's use of the computer (a child at this age should not have unsupervised access to the Internet), computer games, movies, and know what they have access to at their friend's homes.
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Passive Smoking
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Children that are exposed to parents that smoke have been shown to have more problems with allergies and asthma, have higher rates of SIDS, and more ear and upper respiratory tract infections and it is therefore important to raise your child in a smoke free environment. See your doctor for tips/medicines to help you stop smoking. It is not enough to simply smoke outside or in another room from your baby.
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