Back to News Releases Jennifer Forbes
Communications & Public Affairs
732-235-6356, jenn.forbes@rwjms.rutgers.edu
A Healthy Return to School
Rutgers Physician Karen Leibowitz Offers Nutrition and Fitness Tips to Help Children Succeed
New Brunswick, NJ --As the summer winds down and children in New Jersey get ready to return to school, parents are in the midst of the annual back-to-school preparations: buying school supplies, new clothes and sneakers. Parents are also preparing their children to return to a more organized routine, encouraging the positive attitudes and hard work that lead to good grades and a successful school experience.
Encouraging healthy habits, which help improve learning skills, also is an important part of back-to-school planning. Health and nutrition experts in the HealthyME program at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School provide parents with guidance to keep children productive and happy throughout the day.
Dr. Karen Leibowitz, a gastroenterologist in the department of pediatrics at the medical school and director of the HealthyME program, answers common questions parents have at this time each year:
Question: What healthy habits can parents promote to help students have a positive school day?
Dr. Leibowitz: Parents can help their children have a successful day by ensuring that they get a good night’s sleep. To improve learning, attention, decision making, creativity and mood, school-aged children should aim for 10 hours of sleep each day; teenagers should try to get between 9 and 10 hours. A good night’s sleep supports healthy growth, helps balance hunger, and boosts the immune system. It also ensures enough time in the morning to eat breakfast, which is another important healthy habit to encourage with children, as breakfast improves attention, memory, energy and alertness, and helps to maintain a healthy weight. Parents should try to include food from three to four food groups, as well as whole grains and lean protein during breakfast, to help keep children full and alert until lunch. Similarly, all meals should be balanced to provide important nutrients to keep bodies running well.
Physical activity also is important for physical health and can lead to improved concentration, improved sleep, more energy, and less anxiety. This can be especially valuable as a child adjusts to the challenges of a new school year.
Question: Nutritionally, what foods are best for children to promote healthy growth and brain development? How do these recommendations change as children grow from a toddler to a teenager?
Dr. Leibowitz: A well-balanced diet is key and should include all food groups to keep kids alert throughout the day. Throughout development, all children need a diet that includes healthy choices: be sure they eat a protein, complex carbohydrates, and a fruit or vegetable at every meal. Whole grains, such as brown rice, pasta or bread, are an important fuel source for the brain and should be at least 100 percent whole grain or list whole grain as the first item in the ingredients. Proteins, which ward off hunger and help a child focus, should be lean; remove the skin from meat, trim fats, drain fats when cooking. Choose low-fat dairy products; children older than 2 years of age should drink non-fat or one-percent milk. Lastly, children (and adults) should drink lots of water. Children should consume no more than 4 to 6 ounces per day of juice, even if home-squeezed, and other sweetened beverages. As a child grows, the recommendations do not change, only the portion sizes, therefore it is important to start these habits early in life so that they will become second nature.
Question: What do you recommend to parents whose children aren’t very adventurous when it comes to food?
Dr. Leibowitz: Be patient, most kids are not adventurous when introduced to a new food. Parents should continue to offer a new food, but not force a child to eat it. Introduce a new food in a familiar way. For example, if a child likes a specific flavor, prepare the food with those flavors, or add it to foods the child already knows and loves, like soups, sauces, or smoothies. Introduce a new food in different preparations. For example, cauliflower tastes very different when raw, baked, grilled, steamed, sautéed, mashed, shredded, etc. The Healthy ME nutritionist likes to say, “Sometimes a food can have a ‘bad hair day’ and you have to give it another chance.”
One of the most effective ways to have a child eat a new food, is to role model for him/her and be willing to happily eat the food yourself. Also, kids are more likely to try foods that they helped to make, so involve them in preparing meals.
Question: What recommendations do you have to incorporate physical activity into a child’s day?
Dr. Leibowitz: Build upon activities of daily living with your child: take the stairs over the elevator; park farther away from your destination; walk to school, if it’s in your neighborhood; take an extra lap around the mall when you’re running errands together; and engage your child in active chores around the house like vacuuming and yard work. Schedule time to be active as a family by starting with activities you enjoy, or use this time to explore new activities together.
It’s important to limit TV time to less than two hours per day. Use that extra time to be active in your home or get outside. Create a list with your child of alternative activities that they can enjoy and if your child enjoys playing video games during those two hours, encourage active video games that include dance, running in place, yoga or anything that requires regular movement. Sign your child up for a sport or activity that he or she enjoys at school or in the community. Think outside the box and consider activities like rock climbing, skiing, fencing, ultimate Frisbee, or dancing. Check with your local recreation department or library for free or low-cost community programs.
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