Very often, parents complain that with the beginning of a visit to a kindergarten or school their kid began to get sick regularly. Indeed, preschool and school institutions often create conditions conducive to the development of diseases: dry air in the premises, multiple contacts with sick children and adults, and so on. and if we take into account the desire of many parents to wrap their children more tightly, the wrong organization of the regime of the day, poor nutrition, the situation seems deplorable at all. The baby is sick more and more, parents, trying to protect the crumb from infections, wrap it up more and more, reduce the time of walking with children in cool weather, put them to sleep in the hottest room. Such actions give the opposite effect - the crumb gets sick again and again, and the circle closes. Although in fact to go beyond this unpleasant scenario is not so difficult as it seems.
In this article we will talk about such a simple and at the same time effective method of promoting health as hardening. We will tell you about the main methods, rules and principles of tempering children, tell you about where to start the tempering of a child, what are the features of tempering weakened children, etc.
Methods of tempering children
The whole essence of hardening measures - in the regular repeated repetition of the same type of loads on the body. The principle is the same as when training muscles - a regular and gradual increase in the load increases the strength and endurance of the body. The body's defenses increase, which means that bacteria and viruses are no longer scary. In addition to the apparent immunomodulatory effect, there is an increase in appetite, improved sleep, normalization of growth and development, increased efficiency and concentration of attention.
There are two main methods of cold hardening:
- Tempering with air.
- Water hardening.
When starting the hardening procedures, be prepared for the fact that you will not be able to achieve the effect with 2-3 procedures - this is impossible. Moreover, accelerating the process can damage the child, so do not rush.
Note also that the training effect of hardening actions is not long and to keep it, you will have to continue hardening constantly. After the termination of training, the effect disappears after 3-10 days. If the break between training is at least 3 days, you will have to start the whole program first.
How to begin to temper the child?
First of all, remember: you can not begin tempering, if the baby is sick. Only healthy children can be hardened. It is best to start in the summer, although it is possible at any time of the year. In addition to water hardening (douches, contrasting douches of the legs), air baths can be used. If you decide to pour a child with water, in the first few months you do not need to pour a head.
When tempering, it is important to observe the following rules:
- continuity. Procedures "from time to time", irregular hardening do not bring benefits, rather harm;
- gradualness. Too dramatically lowering the temperature of the water for douches almost always leads to a cold. The same effect you will achieve if you send an unprepared child to walk barefoot in the snow or in cold weather, lightly dressed, send to the street;
- turn hardening into fun, hardening with cold water is a game for children, the kid should love the procedures;
- if the baby is sick (any symptoms of illness - any loose stools, sleep disturbances, cough, runny nose, red throat, or anything else that indicates unhealthiness) - the procedure should be stopped and turned to the pediatrician.
It is better to start hardening with air baths - this is the most gentle procedure. Air baths are of three types: warm (air temperature - not lower than +20 ° С), cool (+ 20 - + 14 ° С) and cold (below + 14 ° С). Of course, you need to start with warm ones, gradually lowering the temperature. Before the procedure, the room needs to be ventilated. In the future, the procedure can be moved from the room to the open air (but in wet windy weather it is better to practice indoors with an open window). Initially, the duration of the procedure should not exceed 10-15 minutes. Be sure to follow the child's reaction to the procedures. If the crumb freezes, becomes covered with "goosebumps" or trembles - the temperature for it is too low, it is not yet ready for it. Thus, the transition time to lower temperatures is strictly individual. It is best to take air baths (especially cool) during active movement - charging, jogging or active games.
After a couple of months of hardening by air, you can proceed to water procedures. They are divided into three stages: rubbing, pouring and showering. The initial water temperature for any procedure is + 34-36 ° C. Every 3-4 days the water temperature is reduced by one degree.
For selection, use a towel soaked in water, which crumbs vigorously. When dousing the body of the baby (but not the head) watered. During the shower the baby gets wet completely. The initial duration of any of these procedures is no more than 2 minutes, further time increases, and the water temperature decreases. After these procedures, the baby should be well rubbed with a dry towel.
In summer, an excellent method of hardening is swimming in open water. As in other methods, the initial duration of the procedure should not exceed 2-3 minutes, later the bath time increases.
How to harden a child's throat?
For hardening of the throat, daily rinsing of the throat with water or water herbs of herbs (chamomile, sage) is used. Begin with a warm liquid, gradually reducing its temperature. For a one-time rinse, about 1/3 cup water is used. The initial rinse temperature is about + 35 ° C. Each week, the temperature is lowered by one degree and thus gradually brought to +10 - +6 ° C.