Stretch Water Exercise

In the pool, you can do a lot of exercises, but there are a few basic ones to help pregnant women feel good. You can start with the exercises, which contribute to a better stretch, and so they need to be done at the side of the pool.

• Try to perform longitudinal splits, exactly as much as you can.
• Try to perform cross splits, as well as you can.
• Jump in the water several times, trying to place your legs as wide as possible.
• Putting alternately your right and left leg to the side, try to squat to perform semi-splits.

Pregnancy Twisting Exercise

Twisting exercises are best to carry out, holding the side of the pool with your hands, squatting and standing on toes, turning the body in one direction and then in the opposite direction.
Then you can rest on your back in the water holding on to the side of the pool, with your feet performing the rotational movements as if riding a bicycle or simply hitting the water surface with your feet.
Lying with your stomach down and holding the side of the pool with your hands, try to push your feet from the water with outstretched arms. Drawing semicircles with your feet, slowly pull your knees to your stomach.

Relaxing Exercises for Pregnant Women

These exercises will help you relax and have a rest.

• You can lie on your back, with your head on an inflatable pillow and your arms outstretched to the sides. Lie down and relax on the water.
• You can also lie on your stomach and, holding your breath, duck with your head under the water and move your arms, legs and the entire body.

Breath Holding Exercise for Expecting Mothers

The exercises for breath holding are very useful because they help to train future mothers to hold breath for a longer time, which will help to push during delivery. It will also help your child better stand oxygen starvation while passing through the birth canal.

In order to perform the following exercise, you can jump up and clasp your hands around your folded together feet. While doing so, the knees should be drawn to the sides as much as possible lowering the head under the water at the same time. In this case you will come to the surface, like a float. In this position, you need to hold your breath for some time.

The next exercise simulates the position of the child in utero: legs are pulled up to the body, feet are crossed, and hands are crossed on the chest. Inhaling the air, it is necessary to sink under water in this position.

Pregnant women should do exercises in the pool under the guidance of an experienced coach, who will help them choose, if necessary, individual exercises that will suit them best and will help prepare for childbirth.

Today, diagnosis of depression is based on surveying the patient, who enlists the symptoms, and physicians prescribe therapy on the basis of these data. The researchers from Chicago say that their method will help identify depression at an early stage and use personalized treatment.

According to the scientists, the new test will be particularly relevant for adolescent patients. Depression in children is difficult to identify because children cannot always tell what depresses and worries them, and so they cannot get the right treatment. The development of the disease at an early age suggests its being of genetic nature, that is inherited.

According to the experts, if the level of depression at a younger age does not exceed 2-4%, depression in teenagers is already at the level of 10-20%. If depression is left untreated, the risk of overusing psychoactive substances increases, there appear difficulties with social adjustment, and the child may get sick often. Sometimes teenagers run away from home, unable to cope with problems on their own, or even attempt suicide. That is why the researchers say it is important to give an early and accurate diagnosis.

To conduct their research, the team of scientists invited 14 teenagers, diagnosed with depression, and 14 healthy teens from 15 to 19 years old. Taking blood samples, the researchers paid particular attention to the 26 biological markers of depression, which had been previously identified in the course of experiments on rats. 11 of these markers were found in the blood of the teenagers, participating in the experiment.

According to the report of the American scientists, published in the Translational Psychiatry journal, biological markers of blood provide objective data that can be used to verify verbal information obtained from the patient and improve the accuracy of diagnosis. Diagnosis and classification of depression at its early stage would help extend the arsenal of therapeutic means and select individual therapy.

It is believed that the mother’s lifestyle before and during pregnancy can affect the health of the child in the long run. Her diet, the air that she breathes, alcohol, smoking – all of this can cause irreversible changes in the DNA of her unborn child. Metaphorically speaking, if we imagine that the first letters and words appear in the book of the child’s future life during pregnancy, they will remain unchanged. What can be changed is the punctuation, as the Daily Mail magazine writes.

Thus, the scientists from Newcastle University have proved that obesity predisposition may develop at the stage of fetus formation. The researchers analyzed blood samples of the children aged 9 to 11 years (the samples had been taken at birth). In particular, they were looking for genes that had the same sequence, but “behaved” differently in people with normal weight and overweight. It was found that DNA markers in obese children were different as early as at birth.

In their study, the researchers relied on the methods of epigenetics (which is yet a controversial science), studying changes in gene expression and cell phenotype caused by the mechanisms that do not involve changes in DNA sequence.

These are the results of the new study, which was conducted in England. The researchers analyzed the questionnaires of 11,000 children. First of all, the data about the quality of sleep were collected when the children were 6, 18, 30, 42, 57, and 69 months old, and then the parents were asked to answer some questions about the behavioral factors of their children (at the age of 4 and 7 years).

According to the statistics collected, 45% of the children had no problems with the quality of sleep. 55% of the children demonstrated all the three signs of breathing problems.

After the exclusion of other factors influencing social adjustment, the researchers found that the likelihood of behavioral problems in children with sleep disorders ranged from 40% to 100%. The more the symptoms of respiratory failure manifested themselves, the higher was the risk of such problems as hyperactivity, aggression, unwillingness to follow the rules, anxiety, depression, and difficulties with socialization among peers.

The researchers recommend that more attention should be paid to children’s nighttime recreation, providing all the factors of healthy sleep (mode, ventilation, quiet games). It is extremely important since breathing problems can affect the child’s behavior and disrupt the balance in various body systems in the long term.

The researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have conducted a study, which showed that the effectiveness of vaccines (diphtheria, tetanus) is greatly reduced for children, whose blood contains higher concentrations of perfluorinated compounds (PFC). So, seven-year-old children, whose concentration of PFC in the blood was twice exceeding the norm, had the reduction of the number of antibodies by 49%. Accordingly, the likelihood of being infected with diphtheria and tetanus was 4(!) times higher in some cases.

When the concentration of PFC in the body increases, the immune system becomes more sluggish and less capable of supporting protection mechanisms to combat pathogens. Thus, the children, who participated in the study and showed a high concentration of the PFC in the blood, had a smaller number of tetanus and diphtheria antibodies. The consequences of this failure may be the child’s having development problems, impaired reproductive function, as well as other health problems.

Perfluorinated compounds is a group of widely used fluorinated organic compounds that may be contained in repellents for the treatment of clothing, footwear and carpets, in a package for popcorn, which can be cooked at home in a microwave oven, as well as the packaging of child care cosmetics.

The experts from the University of New South Wales announced the shocking statistics. It turns out that every fifth expectant mother has the bad habit of smoking regularly, despite all the doctors’ warnings.

Fathers also treat the health of their future successors condescendingly and do not prevent pregnant mothers from smoking.

It is worth mentioning that female smokers may face the increased risk of having a child with heart disease, and the risk of the baby’s birth defects on the part of the gastric tract is three times bigger, as the scientists warn.

In addition, the toxins that cigarette smoke contains affect fertility very badly. The experts from the University of Newcastle suspect that this detrimental effect of smoking may affect more than one generation. Thus, the daughter of a non-smoking mother can have problems with fertility because of the grandmother, who was smoking…

Professor James Walker from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston once again warns pregnant women that smoking is dangerous because of such problems, as stillbirth, deformities of the baby, and premature birth.

The experts stress that expectant mothers and their families should do everything possible to give up this bad habit at least during pregnancy.

DNA analysis of a small group of children showed that the tested male infants had a certain mutation of the enzyme, which could interfere with the ability of proper breathing during sleep. However, this mutation was not found in girls.

The author of the study, Dr. Michael Klintschar, director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Hannover, explains that his team tried to take into account the previous studies, which proved that the deviation in the brain stem, regulating breath and other basic body functions, led to SIDS. The doctor adds that the causes of these disorders remain unclear, but some scientists believe that genes inherited from parents may be one of several factors leading to SIDS.

German scientists point out that parents can reduce the risk of SIDS by 50%, avoiding to lay the baby on its stomach. In addition, this risk reduces the use of pacifiers. Among other risk factors, scientists indicate parental smoking right next to the child, excessive wrapping of the child, or sleeping in a hot unventilated room.

Since 2006, HPV vaccine is used in the U.S. to vaccinate girls and young women. It is considered very effective in preventing cervical cancer. From the moment this initiative of the Academy of Pediatrics was approved by the medical community, the number of types of cancer, caused by HPV, has increased. It has been found that the sad list includes cancer of the rectum, and some types of head and neck tumors.

Initially, when the positive effect of the HPV vaccine was confirmed, it was assumed that it could be effective in preventing cervical cancer and genital warts. Dr. Michael Brady, chairman of the Academy’s committee on infectious diseases says it is clear today that vaccination should take place among the teenagers, including both young men and women. The current approach is ineffective in terms of public health, since men are also involved in the transmission of human papillomavirus. If the vaccination involves both girls and boys, perhaps, the number of cases of HPV will decrease.

The new guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics were published on February 27 in the Pediatrics journal.

The study was conducted in Scotland, and its results were published in “Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health“. The research involved 850 people aged 15, 35, and 55 years. Their habits, health indicators and lifestyles had been studied during 20 years. One in five people, who participated in the study, had lived in the same place during the childhood, 59% had moved once or twice, and about 21% had moved at least three times. Children in single-parent families or living with a stepfather were proved to move across the country or the world more often than others. The families with two or three children were also more likely to move than families with four or more children.

In general, those who had moved more often than others, demonstrated health problems, they were weaker than their peers, and got sick more often. They also had frequent psychological stress, drinking and smoking problems in the adolescent age and later, when these children became adults.

The head of the research, Eric Werner, comments on the results of the research of his group saying that he is acutely aware as a physician that the rate of cesarean section among modern women is growing every year. And the surgery is often carried out not for medical reasons. Werner also says that the use of Cesarean section for premature babies is not always justified, since it does not provide protection from adverse consequences. And this surgery is necessary only in extreme cases, when it comes to saving the lives of mothers and children.

Werner also stresses that future mothers should clearly understand that by agreeing to Cesarean section for aesthetic reasons or for fear of giving birth on their own, they risk the health of the child. This is a serious surgery, which may be associated with complications.

Virginia Loup, the author of the study, explains that it is associated with an increased content of hormones. The risk of cancer is also caused by the speed of a girl’s maturation. If breasts begin to grow too rapidly, the predisposition to cancer evolves, as well.

Medical Express reports that breast cancer remains a genetic condition, but other factors also have influence – for example, the age when a woman gives birth to her first child and the number of children.

The study is published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.

There are a few pros and a few cons to this procedure. Technically after giving birth to a child and waiting about 6-8 months, there is nothing wrong with having liposuction, especially if it is going to help you feel better as a woman and therefore as a mom. It is advised however to wait at least that amount of time to give your body time to heal from the damage done by the arduous process of childbirth and to get back to a somewhat normal health level. The issues with liposuction is that it removes the fat, but fat can grow back. If you don’t learn how to maintain your weight and follow the doctor’s orders during the liposuction recovery stage then it will be pointless. In a matter of weeks, you’ll be back to square one. It can also be dangerous if too much fat is removed. If you are opting for liposuction do not opt for more than 6-8 pounds in one session. Even this is usually divided into two sessions.

Another alternative to liposuction might be a tummy tuck or tummy liposuction. A tummy tuck can get rid of the excess skin and might give you a more permanent, lasting result as opposed to liposuction after the birth of a child. However, moms planning to have this procedure must be done with having more children as it involves having the skin on the tummy area permanently improved. So mothers, the choice is yours.

What Causes Heartburn in Pregnant Women?

Heartburn during the period of early pregnancy is associated with the gastrin hormone, which controls gastric secretion and has special receptors in the cerebral cortex. Elevated level of the gastrin hormone in the body is a person’s genetic feature. During pregnancy, gastric secretion may be increased, and heartburn will be the result of it.

Another reason is that mother and fetus are connected with an umbilical cord. The fetus produces gastrin, which makes the pregnant woman increase the production of gastric secretion. In this case, there also appears heartburn.

When having heartburn, it is necessary to:

• maintain frequent split meals
• avoid such foods as onions, garlic, sauces, fatty and spicy foods
• change the heat treatment of foods that cause heartburn.

Foods Causing Heartburn

Heartburn may also appear after eating such innocuous products as meat, chicken broth, and cabbage. At the same time, lemon is not the cause of heartburn.

Heartburn Treatment

To treat heartburn, antacid medicine is used. But the medication should be prescribed by a doctor. Therefore, if the fit of heartburn is very strong, you should ask for professional help.

Some medicines may contain the substances that are potentially hazardous to the embryo development. The doctors advise to limit the use of a wide range of medicines during pregnancy. Over-the-counter drugs may contain up to six components that relieve the symptoms of cough, a runny nose, a headache, etc. Choose the drugs that contain the ingredients which remove only your specific symptom.

Also here are some tips for pregnant women about how to cure the common cold:

• Avoid decongestants in early pregnancy (oral taking). They are associated with the increased risk of abdominal wall defects in the fetus. Isotonic solutions in the form of a nasal spray are a good alternative.
• Some medicines contain herbal ingredients that have not undergone testing for use during pregnancy. Study the composition of the medicine carefully and address your physician for advice.
• Do not get too involved in taking the sprays that relieve pain in the throat. They often contain much sugar. Candies may contain zinc and vitamin C, but pregnant women are allowed to take only limited daily doses (80-100 mg of vitamin C and 11 mg of zinc).
• Ensure that cough syrup does not contain alcohol.

It deals with Argentinean scientists’ research with semen. They took samples from 29 healthy men and enacted a situation when a man browses the Internet with a Wi-Fi connection holding his laptop on the knees. After 4 hours of keeping the semen samples under a downloading laptop they registered the following changes: when out of the computer’s vicinity 14% of semen stops swimming around, whereas with the semen placed under the computer it’s 25%, the temperature being the same in both cases. DNA damage registered three percent in Wi-Fi influence-free samples and nine in the samples within the Wi-Fi radiation zone. Researchers are sure that the devastation caused by the Electromagnetic radiation during wireless communication upon the male semen is too great to be ignored. They further placed semen samples under Wi-Fi connected laptops and laptops without wireless Internet access – and got the same result.

It goes to corroborate urologists’ research showing that the temperature of the scrotum of a man balancing a Wi-Fi connected laptop on his knees for a considerable period of time rises to a degree that is detrimental for his reproductive capability.

Nowadays the statistics for the US show that almost 16% of couples are struggling with conceiving problems with the man’s fertility being at fault in 50% of those. The journal also referred to the fact that a diet primarily consisting of fruit and grains and excluding great quantities of red meat, coffee and alcohol increases a man’s chances of getting his partner pregnant and can therefore be regarded as an effective fertility stimulator.

Podiatrists are unanimous: there should be a resolute ‘no’ to the heels! From the first day of diagnosed pregnancy, one should choose “orthopedic” types of shoes, such as sneakers with comfortable shock-absorbing soles, which smooth the way the body shakes while walking. High heels have a negative impact on the joints of the legs, the spine, and the uterus! Walking on high heels certainly increases the risk of edema, varicose veins, and leg pain. Moreover, irreversible changes in the joints can appear because of the sharply increasing weight during the second half of pregnancy. The pregnancy will be over, while the back pain and osteoarthritis of the knee will remain.

You will not be able to control the change of the center of gravity, when the belly will increase greatly, and the confidence in your stability will be reduced. At the same time, the likelihood of falls will increase even in the shoes without heels. You still cannot not feel all these inconveniences, simply because you have not gained much weight, and your figure has not changed much. Soon you will feel it all, so you’d better take care of your health in advance.

Finally, the main purpose of high heels – a beautiful silhouette and gait – becomes something unattainable at the later stages of pregnancy, and this advantage becomes totally perverted. Imagine a waddling “duck” walk of a pregnant woman with her back sharply drawn backwards to keep the center of gravity… and she is wearing high heels.

Vicki could not resist wearing studded heels even during the fourth pregnancy. The result was severe pain in her back, because of which she had to reduce her activity. After the birth of her daughter, she could not even stand during the first few weeks. However, two months later the incorrigible Vicki put on her studded shoes, took the newborn in her arms and went shopping.

The main problem is in the fact that many pregnant women might find this tendency very attractive. All the stars are doing it, after all! We hope that the unhealthy trend will come to naught.

Why Should Pregnant Women Exercise?

With regular physical activity during pregnancy, the level of endorphins increases, and they operate as natural analgesics in the body. Besides, regular moderate exercise helps the body recover faster after childbirth.

How to Start Pregnancy Exercising Correctly?

Of course, it is better to startphysical exercising before rather than during pregnancy in order to keep fit with the help of simple exercises while being in a family way. But, of course, you can start a new kind of physical activity during pregnancy after consulting the doctor.

What Sports to Choose during Pregnancy?

You can practice yoga and attend aerobics classes for pregnant women, but on condition that the program activities have been developed by a qualified instructor and are approved by the obstetrician-gynecologist, who observes you during pregnancy. Thus, you will rule out the occurrence of complications or their provocation.

Swimming has a particularly positive effect on the body during pregnancy. It is known that water soothes and relaxes. Since the weight of the body in water decreases, the growing fetus and the uterus become easier, so the pain in the back decreases, as well as the pressure on the joints.

Aqua Aerobics and Other Water Exercising during Pregnancy

Moderate swimming or aqua-aerobic exercises normalize blood flow, facilitate the blood flow to the heart, which has a beneficial influence on the pregnant woman in case of an increase in blood pressure. During the exercise, there is outflow of tissue fluid into the bloodstream, and then excess liquid is removed through kidneys, which decreases swelling. In addition, resistance to movement is 12 times higher in water, so the training of muscle fibers and joints is more intense, but the necessary sparing regimen is preserved, which, by the way, does not cause the increase of the body temperature.

4 Tips for Pregnant Women Going for Water Fitness

Generally recommended exercises in water usually mean orderly swimming for half an hour. They are just as effective and safe as the classes of aqua-aerobics or aqua-yoga under the supervision of an instructor, who has much experience in fitness programs for pregnant women. Also, one should always remember the traditional advice given by coaches and doctors:

• The optimal water temperature for the classes should be about 27-29° C because warmer water temperatures are harmful to the fetus.
• One needs to drink clean water before and after these exercises, because moisture is lost during any aerobic exercises, even in the pool.
• The planned expenditure of energy needs to be compensated, so one should better plan a meal 1 hour before the class.
• You should watch yourself carefully during a workout, because cool water extinguishes the sense of being tired which can contribute to fatigue.

As for the optimal level of physical activity, you should consult an experienced obstetrician-gynecologist.

The experts have conducted a study demonstrating that the more a woman is exposed to exhaust fumes during the initial and the later stages of pregnancy, the greater the future deviation in child development might be. The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

During the study, the researchers have examined the health of 336,000 babies born in New Jersey between 1999 and 2003. Ethnicity, marital status, education, and the mothers’ addiction to smoking were taken into account. Also, the experts studied the daily information about the environment in New Jersey received during this period.

Taking into account all the factors, it turned out that the proximity of the road was a strong factor in the development of the embryo. The children, whose mothers lived near the roads with heavy traffic, were often born with low birth weight, which led to the problems of child health in the future. According to the experts, the air, that a woman breathes during pregnancy, plays an important role in the development of the fetus and the child in the future.

Both mother’s and father’s smoking are dangerous for the unborn child. And if you still do not believe, Geniuspregnancy offers you the top 10 scientific facts about smoking before and during pregnancy.

1. Smoking reduces fertility in both men and women. After smoking for 5 years, a woman’s ability to conceive decreases by 14%, and that of a man reduces by 11%.
2. A male body removes nicotine faster, than that of a woman – in about 3 months. If you are planning to get pregnant, you and your man should stop smoking much earlier before that.
3. The women, who smoke, have a more difficult pregnancy, than those, who have never smoked or dropped before conception. Early toxemia, preeclampsia, varicose veins, constipation, and dizziness are consequences of smoking before and during pregnancy.
4. Vitamin C destroys much faster in the body of a smoking woman, which leads to its deficit. As a result, one suffers from metabolic diseases, low immunity, depression, and fatigue.
5. The women, who are smoking in the periconceptional period, face the 8 to10 times higher risk of miscarriage.
6. In the families, where one or both parents smoke, the children are twice more likely to suffer from pneumonia, bronchitis and asthma, and 6 times more likely to have gastro-intestinal diseases.
7. Smoking constricts blood vessels and violates the process of oxygen saturation in the blood. This is especially dangerous during pregnancy, because there must be a sufficient amount of oxygen in the blood of the mother for the proper development of the fetus.
8. The girls, whose mother was smoking during pregnancy, are more likely to suffer from infertility in the future.
9. The children of the mothers, who were smoking during pregnancy, are born with low birth weight and weak lungs.
10. As a result of the study, which had been lasting for 33 years, the scientists from the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden) found that those children, whose mothers had been smoking more than 10 cigarettes per day before the birth of the child, had the risk of diabetes increased by 4.5 times. And the risk of obesity was 34-38% higher than among those children, whose mothers had not smoked. These diseases were found in adolescence. The doctors say that smoking produces a toxic influence on the fetus and causes fetal malnutrition. Therefore, the child develops a tendency to accumulate fat.

So, lighting another cigarette, remember that parental smoking during pregnancy not only affects the baby here and now, but reveals itself in the child’s adult life, causing entirely unwanted health problems.

Why Do Children Get Sick So Often?

The reason why children are very often ill is explained by the typical of their age imperfect immune and anatomical and physiological mechanisms which should protect the child’s body from respiratory viruses. Secondly, it is children that bring flu viruses from kindergarten or school. The incidence of flu in children is 5-7 times higher than in the case of adults. The standard scheme of getting infection looks as follows – parents get infected from their ill child, and then they are followed by grandparents. If at least one link in the family is protected from the flu, the incidence decreases significantly.

How Often Can a Kid Get Sick?

Still, colds in children are inevitable. According to pediatricians, a kid may be ill with various colds 6-8 times a year, and it will be within normal limits. Another issue is that prevention and strengthening of children’s organism should make illnesses not too frequent and as mild as possible.

5 Flu and Cold Prevention Tips

1. Observe the rules of hygiene. Contrary to a popular belief, the flu, SARS, etc. are not only airborne, but are also transmitted via handshaking or a towel.
2. Lead a healthy lifestyle. Everyone knows what that means, but not all follow this rule. Meanwhile, the conditions and way of life in 55% of cases determine our health, and genetic factors are only responsible for 5-10%.
3. Strengthen the immune system. In autumn and winter, you should regularly take multivitamin complexes.
4. Take preventive measures. Many doctors recommend vaccination as a kind of protection. If, for some reason, you are not going to get the vaccine, you must use non-specific measures: folk remedies and immunostimulants.
5. Demonstrate awareness. If you do get sick, reduce your contacts to a minimum and get your treatment at home. Thus you will not infect your colleagues and neighbors, and the complications will not be so likely to occur.

Source of the image: Photl.

Dear pregnant women! There is another reason not to ignore doctors’ prescriptions about taking folic acid during the periods of conceiving and carrying a baby. The scientists have already proved that folic acid reduces the risk of certain birth defects.

And now we have a new research which involved 40 000 women. They were asked what vitamin supplements they had been taking as early as 4 weeks before the conception and during 8 weeks after it. Three years later, the same women had to deal with the tests about the development of their children.

It turned out that if the mother had taken folic acid during the described period, the delay of speech had been observed only in four cases per thousand children. And the babies of those mothers, who had not been taking folic acid, had nine cases of delay in speech development per thousand.

The scientists from Columbia University claim that folic acid should be taken by all women of reproductive age. That is why in the U.S. and Canada, most grain products are enriched with folic acid so that most pregnant women could have an opportunity to receive this important ingredient.

Recent studies prove once again that folic acid plays a very important role in the development of infants, whose health begins to be formed at the earliest stages of their mother’s pregnancy.

Source of the image: Photl.

The Dermophil brand is now taking care about the comfort and beauty of not only adults, but children as well. The new product presented by Dermophil is a new “delicious” lip balm, which is designed for children aged four to twelve years. This means protects the delicate skin of the lips, nourishes and moisturizes it, preventing desiccation, and includes 94% of natural ingredients. The formula includes the butter of sesame, sunflower, jojoba and poppy. One can also select the flavors of tangerine, banana or pineapple.

The new children’s balm produced by the Dermophil brand costs about $7.

Source of the image: Ykone.

The cherished dream of the parents of school children is to see their child adapted to the new conditions as soon as possible. And the rules postulated by the doctors will help to protect the child from seasonal colds and to foster the love of healthy living.

1. Healthy and Tasty Food

It is believed that kids love fast food. In fact, they just like to eat. Think about why your child prefers pizza to dinner at home? Maybe he/she likes cheese and tomatoes, so cook vegetable stew or French saute that the child will surely enjoy. If your child is a sweet tooth and loves pastries, replace cakes and cookies with useful fruits and nuts. Explain why potato chips, sweet soda water and hamburgers are harmful.

Home cooking seems dull to a child? Cook a dish of Italian and French cuisine together – vegetable pasta or minestrone soup – it will be useful and very tasty. Life without Coke may seem too boring. Replace it with fruit or vegetable juices. And instead of a dessert you can offer a beautifully served plate with fruit.

But what is a real must in the children’s diet? Pay attention to the pumpkin, red peppers, carrots, lemon, and cranberry – these foods contain vitamins A, E, PP, F and C. Calcium is very important for the teeth and bones, and there is a lot of it in cheese, cottage cheese, and sesame. A lot of useful microelements can be found in nuts, seeds and legumes. Keep in mind dairy products and vegetable probiotics (onion, garlic).

2. Morning Fitness against the Cold

Love for sports is instilled from childhood. Explain to your child that fitness helps to wake up, to finally get rid of sleepiness and lethargy. It is desirable to do the exercises at the same time and before breakfast. The minimum program includes arms swinging, bending, squatting, jumping in place, push-ups.

If your child does not go in for sports, be sure to arrange an active weekend: horseback riding, a swimming pool, a skating-rink, an outdoor festival and playing with a dog – ask the child what he/she likes.

3. Respiratory Gymnastics Helps to Avoid Health Conditions

For the child not to catch a cold, the doctors recommend breathing exercises. Here are two most useful exercises to prevent colds and the flu.

• The child should put the hands on the ribs on both sides of the chest and imagine that he/she is smelling a scenty flower. A slow inhale through the nose (the ribs should move), and an exhale. The stomach and shoulders should remain stationary, and the ribs and hands should move. Repeat 3-4 times.
• It is done standing, with the feet together, and the arms stretched along the body. As the child hears “one”, he/she raises the hands sides up, then the child inhales, holds the breath and slowly puts the hands down with the continuous exhaling sound “ph-h-h ‘. Repeat 2 times.

4. Day Regimen Stops the Flu

A clear and thoughtful daily regimen not only helps with the discipline and teaches us not to have a time trouble, but also protects against colds, if managed correctly. Discuss daily routine with the child and hang the schedule in the best visible place in the room. Remember that sleeping should take at least 9-10 hours. And be sure to include daily walks and exercises (at least 2-3 hours).

5.Massage to Prevent Catching a Cold

One should not necessarily go to a specialist (unless, of course, there is medical evidence). Self-massage will also be useful. Walking on massage mats stimulates the reflex zones of feet. Massage of ears is a great way to wake up as soon as possible: grasp the ear tips with the thumb and forefinger and pull them down a few times.

A vibratory massage of the chest is good for the respiratory system and prevents illness and cold. It is quite easy to tap your chest with a fist as you exhale, pronouncing vowel sounds.

6. Drawing, Constructing, Modelling

These lessons develop fine motor skills and thus help to quickly learn to write beautifully and stimulate the development of intellectual abilities.

7. Speaking to Parents

Share your experiences at dinner, ask about the child’s relationship with peers, his/her thoughts and wishes. Do not speak badly about his abilities and try to criticize less. On the contrary, strengthen the child’s confidence in his/her abilities and encourage progress. It is important not only to take care and be close, but also to teach a child to be independent and to learn to express his/her own opinion.

Source of the image: Photl.

This is one of the first studies aimed at examining the effect of the use of multivitamins immediately before and after conception. It has been proved that nutrient deficiency in the female body can increase the risk of birth complications. At the same time, the researchers warn that it is too early to recommend the women who are planning pregnancy or are already pregnant to take these medications.

There has been conducted an experiment attended by around 36,000 women. The results showed that the majority of pregnant women, approximately 60%, took multivitamins during the four weeks before and eight weeks after the last menstrual period. However, one must take into account such risk factors as smoking, excess weight and maternal age. The study shows that the women who took multivitamins every day and had a normal weight had 20% less chance of having a premature baby if to compare with those who did not take them. At the same time, overweight women did not demonstrate any changes.

Doctors have always recommended expectant mothers to take folic acid, the vitamin that helps prevent complications during pregnancy. The experts demand that food manufacturers should add the vitamin into cereal products, including flour and bread. The authors of the latest study claim that other vitamins, except folic acid, can be added to food products in order to reduce the risk of complications during childbirth. But at the same time they warn that there should be some more research and have not yet recommended daily intake of vitamins to women who are planning a pregnancy.

Source of the image: Photl.

The study reinforces the common wisdom that fat people have a positive attitude. Sense of well-being may be due to hormonal and neuroendocrine features that accompany overweight. It may also be because a person gave up fighting overweight and learned to love him/herself the way he/she is.

About 40 000 adolescents took part in the research that established a connection between body mass index and depression. The connection was relevant for both boys and girls. Nevertheless, more girls were depressed, although they were less numerous in comparison with their peers of the opposite sex. While boys associated obesity or extra pounds with depression, girls had mental problems due to being even slightly overweight.

Source of the image: Photl.