Ways to increase children's immunity apart from food

Immunity or the immune system plays an important role in protecting your little one from invading bacteria or viruses that enter the body. If the immunity is weak, the child will experience various diseases. One way to increase children's immunity is by consuming nutrients from food. However, sometimes nutrition from food is not enough. You need to encourage your child to want to do the following things that benefit the immune system. What are some of them?

Increase children's immunity apart from nutrition from food

The immune system is formed by organs, cells and proteins that work synergistically. There are two types of immune system or immunity of children that you need to know.

Innate immunity. The immune system is present in the body since you are born.
Acquired immunity. You create a certain immune system when your body is exposed to microbes or compounds derived from certain microbes.

The child's immunity will be formed naturally. However, efforts are still needed to keep it active and strong against various bacterial or viral attacks.

Apart from consuming food as a source of nutrition, there are several other factors that can help increase a child's immunity.

Encourage children to exercise or actively move

Nowadays, it is easy for children to be fixated on technology or be immersed in themselves for hours playing on a smartphone. It's not always detrimental, but you still need to adjust the balance between playing games and sports or more precisely staying active.

As reported by the Medlineplus.gov page, being active can help children reduce the risk of heart disease and keep bones healthy and strong.

Some theories also say that exercise can increase children's immunity against certain types of diseases. One of them is that exercise or physical activity causes changes in the child's antibodies and white blood cells.

White blood cells are a child's immune system that is useful for fighting disease.

Teach and encourage children to wash their hands regularly

Touching any surface is responsible for up to 80% of infections. Teach children to always wash their hands properly and properly after sneezing, coughing, or from the toilet.

Washing your hands for 20 seconds can expel bacteria and viruses that cause disease and reduce the risk of lung infections by 45 percent.

Get additional nutrition from formula milk

A study from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that children who consumed formula milk containing prebiotics, PDX, GOS (polydextrose and galactooligosaccharide), and beta-glucan increases white blood cells so that it gets an anti-inflammatory mechanism or boosts immune cells in the body. This is associated with a reduced risk and duration of acute respiratory infections.

Not always children get a balanced nutritional intake from the food they consume. Therefore, additional nutrition from supplements, for example formula milk, can help meet nutritional needs that are useful also to increase children's immunity.

Educate good sleep habits

Adiane Lioudis, MD, a pediatrician from Cleveland Clinic said that to boost immunity, children need to get enough sleep.

Sleep needs for children are differentiated by age, namely between 3-5 years old and between 10 and 13 hours of sleep and between 6-13 years of sleep between 9 and 11 hours.

When sleep deprivation, the body will experience interference in producing cytokines that are useful to help fight infection and reduce inflammation.

Laughing together

Reporting from Verywellfamily.com, research shows that laughter can improve immune function by increasing the production of antibody cells and making it more effective in protecting the body, including in children.

Plus, laughter has been shown to lower stress hormones by increasing happy hormones, such as endorphins.

Providing various types of food as a source of nutrition must still be done in order to maintain the immune system. In addition, there are factors as already described that are no less important in helping to increase a child's immunity.