Parents urged to keep kids healthy, protected from rains

A BALANCED diet and moderate exercise can keep children healthy and strong during the rainy season, medical experts said yesterday.

Medical specialist Dr. Joanri Riveral said parents should prepare their children’s meals by following the daily recommended intake prescribed by the Department of Health (DOH).

He said the children’s three meals should consist of 50 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent of protein and 20 percent fats.

Too much of these would only be deposited as fat in a child’s body, causing damage later in adulthood, Riveral said.

Teenagers should also engage in brisk walking and eat more fruits and vegetables rather than consume vitamin supplements.

“Vitamins are just supplements, it is not complete food,” Riveral said.

Children should drink milk, not coffee and should bathe everyday to adjust themselves to the colder temperature, Riveral said.

They should also use boots, raincoats and umbrellas should also be used to keep them safe from ailments.

Hand-washing should also be encouraged, while parents should remind children to avoid eating food sold outside the school. “These foods are likely to be contaminated,” Riveral said.

Children should also avoid eating foods which has colors since it could harm their health.

Parents should be mindful of the chemical content in buying school supplies since some of them are harmful to the children.

Evelyn Rivera-Pantaleon, principal of the Kawit Elementary School in Cebu said children should drink filtered or boiled water to avoid disease.

She said she advised teachers to keep schoolchildren inside classrooms during heavy rains.

She also said they cleaned their school and its surroundings to avoid the incidence of dengue.

Pantaleon said teachers were trained to apply Quiti-Kill, a product that kills the larvae of mosquitoes. Correspondent Christine Emily L. Pantaleon