Hardening of a frequently ill child. When to start and how to temper a child with weak immunity: air and sun baths, water procedures and physical activity. What is hardening

Three to six

This age is called preschool - early childhood is already behind us, the stage preceding school entry begins.
For those whom parents began to harden from the first days of life, it will undoubtedly be easier to study, they will not have to miss classes due to frequent runny noses and sore throats. But even starting to harden a child at three or four years old and even at five or six years old, you can do a lot.

During the day, for sure!

Tempering procedures should also be included in the child's daily routine with the same obligation as food, sleep, walks. We offer the following schedule.

• In the morning - air bath for 15 minutes; of which 6-7 minutes we recommend doing gymnastics.
• After an air bath and gymnastics - washing up to the waist with water, the temperature of which is 16-14 degrees, and if water procedures were not performed before - 27 degrees.
• Before and after washing - gargle. In the first days with warm water - 36-33 degrees; every 5 days, lower its temperature by 1 degree, bringing it to 18-16. This procedure is especially useful for weakened, often ill children. The initial water temperature for them is the same, but it must be reduced more slowly - every 7 days. If the child is sick, do not stop rinsing, but you should not lower the temperature of the water. It is even better to gargle with warmer water - one degree higher than before the disease.

The most favorable time for sunbathing is from 8 to 11 hours, duration up to 30 minutes, but in two doses. The child lay down for 5-15 minutes in the sun, then rested in the shade and again for 5-15 minutes under direct sunlight.

A seasoned child can replace morning washing to the waist with a general douche or shower; or, getting out of bed, let him wash himself and wash up to his waist, and do the douche after a sunbath.
Foot contrast baths - after a daytime sleep.

This procedure can be replaced by dousing the legs. The initial water temperature is 28 degrees, lowering it every 8-4 days (for weakened children - every 7 days), bring it to 16 degrees.

All hardening procedures are best done in the morning and afternoon, around 9 and 15 hours. Studies have shown that at this time of day, preschool children develop better adaptive reactions to temperature fluctuations.

Basic rules for hardening a child

1. You can start hardening at any time of the year.
2. Hardening is effective only when it is carried out systematically; without constant reinforcement, the results achieved decline.
3. It is impossible to sharply increase the duration and strength of hardening effects. Violation of the principle of gradualness can cause hypothermia and illness in the child.
4. Hardening procedures should not be started if the child is sick.
5. The effectiveness of hardening procedures increases if they are carried out in a complex manner.

6. The child should like the procedure, evoke positive emotions.

Together with mom and dad

It is known that children love to imitate adults, and it will be very good if parents use this ability of a child in order to instill in him a strong habit of gymnastics and tempering procedures. Children and parents can do morning exercises together!

Special observations have established that in children who even only three times a week (in autumn and winter, respectively dressed) perform gymnastic exercises in the air, the activity of the bacterial flora of the nasopharynx decreases, in other words, they are less threatened by acute respiratory diseases.

By the age of 4, the child is already noticeably more enduring than at the third. He can, for example, continuously walk for 20 to 40 minutes. Train him to walk! A walk with mom and dad out of town, to the park will leave him with joyful impressions and will be very useful.

One of the most favorite summer activities for children of this age is cycling. At 3-4 years old, kids easily master a three-wheeled, and from 5 years old, a two-wheeled one. The duration of continuous cycling is from 15 to 30 minutes.

In winter, children are always attracted to sledding from the mountains. Very good! Let only a child, according to a well-known Russian proverb, fall in love with carrying sleds: make sure that he himself goes uphill with them! So he will not get cold, and physical training will be more effective.

From 4-5 years old, teach children to ski; first - to stand on them correctly, then - to walk without sticks, and only when they have mastered this skill well, you can give them sticks.

A kid of 4-5 years old can also be put on skates. At first, he will get tired after 10-15 minutes, but the more confident he starts to feel on the ice, the longer he will be able to ride - for 40-60 minutes (with breaks every 20 minutes).

Bathing and swimming

Swimming in open water is the most effective hardening procedure. Many parents are now successfully teaching infants to swim in the home bath. Young children are taught to swim in the pools of children's clinics. But if your child isn't a swimmer, use the summer to teach them how to float.

Of course, the baby can start swimming at an air temperature of at least 25 degrees (if it is hardened - at least 24), on calm days and only in a clean pond, with a gentle sandy shore, where there are no snags, algae, stones. Teach him to calmly enter the water, not to be afraid to open his eyes in the water. Let him play with the ball, try to dip, and you, standing next to him, help him keep his balance. And watch - is he cold? If "goosebumps" appeared - immediately go to the shore, dry off and warm yourself in the sun!

After the first acquaintance with the water, tasks are already possible that prepare for swimming.

"Get it." The child must quickly find a toy or a stone laid on the bottom (in shallow water, of course).
"Who sooner." Enter the water to the waist, turn to face the shore and, on command, quickly run ashore.
"Who is higher." Crouch and jump out of the water as high as possible.
"Hide under the water." Plunge headlong, without pinching your nose and mouth with your hands.

Teach your child how to breathe properly in the water. Let him, after taking a short breath, lower his face into the water and exhale slowly through his mouth, as if blowing on hot tea, but so that small bubbles form on the surface of the water. On the count of “one”, inhale above the water, on “two, three, four, five” - exhale into the water. After repeating this exercise 12-16 times, you can proceed to the next stage of preparatory exercises.

"Rinsing clothes". Enter the water so that it is just below the waist, put your legs apart, bend down, lower your hands into the water and make them move left and right, back and forth.
"Mill". Rowing with your hands in the water: one hand rows, the other sweeps through the air.
"Float". Standing in the water, take a breath, hold your breath, sit down, plunging under the water, wrap your arms around your knees, and press your chin to your chest. The water will push the baby to the surface.
"Jellyfish". After the baby learns to make a "float", having completed this exercise, spread his arms and legs to the sides.
"Scissors". Sit near the shore in shallow water and move straightened legs up and down.
If within a few days the child gets comfortable with these exercises and does them with pleasure, try placing him with his chest on a rubber circle, arms extended forward. By kicking the water from top to bottom, balance is maintained, and the child swims. At first - without immersing the face, then exhaling into the water, and to inhale, turning the face to the side.

The next step is to learn to lie on your back. Let the child, standing with his back to the shore, slowly sit down, so that his chin touches the water, maintain balance with his arms outstretched to the sides and then lean his head back, plunging the back of his head into the water and gradually taking a lying position. Helping himself with the movements of his hands, he will lie on the water.

If this doesn’t work out right away, it doesn’t matter, at first, lightly support the novice swimmer.

It remains to learn how to slide on the chest. Entering the water, the child should turn to face the shore, sit down, stretch his arms with his palms down and, taking a breath, push off from the bottom. Show him how, in a position resembling an arrow, to swim to the shore; then teach him to do alternating rowing with his hands and quick movements with his legs.

The thermoregulatory mechanisms of the child are trained under the influence of both strong, but short-term cooling and relatively weak, to longer ones. In addition, researchers have found that hardening is most effective when not only individual parts of the body are cooled, but the entire body. This means that contrasting foot baths or dousing alone, for all their benefits, will not give the maximum effect. If you want your child to grow up strong, use the whole complex that we talked about!

If you have been tempering a child for more than a year, you can recommend a combination of water procedures followed by air baths, first in the room, and in the summer in the open air. After pouring or showering, do not dry your baby dry. Remove only large drops of water with light touches of a terry towel. Let it dry, remaining naked: as a result of the evaporation of moisture, the body is further cooled.

But it is impossible to allow the child to tremble. If he is cold - you need to do a light massage, rub it with a towel. Within a few days, repeat the douche followed by an air bath - and the child will get used to it, additional warming is not required.
We remind you that this procedure is potent, and hardening cannot be started with it.

Caution, gradualness, systematicity are the three principles that must be strictly adhered to when tempering a child.

When using the materials of the article, an active hyperlink to the source is required -

Three to six

This age is called preschool - early childhood is already behind us, the stage preceding school entry begins.
For those whom parents began to harden from the first days of life, it will undoubtedly be easier to study, they will not have to miss classes due to frequent runny noses and sore throats. But even starting to harden a child at three or four years old and even at five or six years old, you can do a lot.

During the day, for sure!

Tempering procedures should also be included in the child's daily routine with the same obligation as food, sleep, walks. We offer the following schedule.

• In the morning - air bath for 15 minutes; of which 6-7 minutes we recommend doing gymnastics.
• After an air bath and gymnastics - washing up to the waist with water, the temperature of which is 16-14 degrees, and if water procedures were not performed before - 27 degrees.
• Before and after washing - gargle. In the first days with warm water - 36-33 degrees; every 5 days, lower its temperature by 1 degree, bringing it to 18-16. This procedure is especially useful for weakened, often ill children. The initial water temperature for them is the same, but it must be reduced more slowly - every 7 days. If the child is sick, do not stop rinsing, but you should not lower the temperature of the water. It is even better to gargle with warmer water - one degree higher than before the disease.

The most favorable time for sunbathing is from 8 to 11 hours, duration up to 30 minutes, but in two doses. The child lay down for 5-15 minutes in the sun, then rested in the shade and again for 5-15 minutes under direct sunlight.

A seasoned child can replace morning washing to the waist with a general douche or shower; or, getting out of bed, let him wash himself and wash up to his waist, and do the douche after a sunbath.
Foot contrast baths - after a daytime sleep.

This procedure can be replaced by dousing the legs. The initial water temperature is 28 degrees, lowering it every 8-4 days (for weakened children - every 7 days), bring it to 16 degrees.

All hardening procedures are best done in the morning and afternoon, around 9 and 15 hours. Studies have shown that at this time of day, preschool children develop better adaptive reactions to temperature fluctuations.

Basic rules for hardening a child

1. You can start hardening at any time of the year.
2. Hardening is effective only when it is carried out systematically; without constant reinforcement, the results achieved decline.
3. It is impossible to sharply increase the duration and strength of hardening effects. Violation of the principle of gradualness can cause hypothermia and illness in the child.
4. Hardening procedures should not be started if the child is sick.
5. The effectiveness of hardening procedures increases if they are carried out in a complex manner.

6. The child should like the procedure, evoke positive emotions.

Together with mom and dad

It is known that children love to imitate adults, and it will be very good if parents use this ability of a child in order to instill in him a strong habit of gymnastics and tempering procedures. Children and parents can do morning exercises together!

Special observations have established that in children who even only three times a week (in autumn and winter, respectively dressed) perform gymnastic exercises in the air, the activity of the bacterial flora of the nasopharynx decreases, in other words, they are less threatened by acute respiratory diseases.

By the age of 4, the child is already noticeably more enduring than at the third. He can, for example, continuously walk for 20 to 40 minutes. Train him to walk! A walk with mom and dad out of town, to the park will leave him with joyful impressions and will be very useful.

One of the most favorite summer activities for children of this age is cycling. At 3-4 years old, kids easily master a three-wheeled, and from 5 years old, a two-wheeled one. The duration of continuous cycling is from 15 to 30 minutes.

In winter, children are always attracted to sledding from the mountains. Very good! Let only a child, according to a well-known Russian proverb, fall in love with carrying sleds: make sure that he himself goes uphill with them! So he will not get cold, and physical training will be more effective.

From 4-5 years old, teach children to ski; first - to stand on them correctly, then - to walk without sticks, and only when they have mastered this skill well, you can give them sticks.

A kid of 4-5 years old can also be put on skates. At first, he will get tired after 10-15 minutes, but the more confident he starts to feel on the ice, the longer he will be able to ride - for 40-60 minutes (with breaks every 20 minutes).

Bathing and swimming

Swimming in open water is the most effective hardening procedure. Many parents are now successfully teaching infants to swim in the home bath. Young children are taught to swim in the pools of children's clinics. But if your child isn't a swimmer, use the summer to teach them how to float.

Of course, the baby can start swimming at an air temperature of at least 25 degrees (if it is hardened - at least 24), on calm days and only in a clean pond, with a gentle sandy shore, where there are no snags, algae, stones. Teach him to calmly enter the water, not to be afraid to open his eyes in the water. Let him play with the ball, try to dip, and you, standing next to him, help him keep his balance. And watch - is he cold? If "goosebumps" appeared - immediately go to the shore, dry off and warm yourself in the sun!

After the first acquaintance with the water, tasks are already possible that prepare for swimming.

"Get it." The child must quickly find a toy or a stone laid on the bottom (in shallow water, of course).
"Who sooner." Enter the water to the waist, turn to face the shore and, on command, quickly run ashore.
"Who is higher." Crouch and jump out of the water as high as possible.
"Hide under the water." Plunge headlong, without pinching your nose and mouth with your hands.

Teach your child how to breathe properly in the water. Let him, after taking a short breath, lower his face into the water and exhale slowly through his mouth, as if blowing on hot tea, but so that small bubbles form on the surface of the water. On the count of “one”, inhale above the water, on “two, three, four, five” - exhale into the water. After repeating this exercise 12-16 times, you can proceed to the next stage of preparatory exercises.

"Rinsing clothes". Enter the water so that it is just below the waist, put your legs apart, bend down, lower your hands into the water and make them move left and right, back and forth.
"Mill". Rowing with your hands in the water: one hand rows, the other sweeps through the air.
"Float". Standing in the water, take a breath, hold your breath, sit down, plunging under the water, wrap your arms around your knees, and press your chin to your chest. The water will push the baby to the surface.
"Jellyfish". After the baby learns to make a "float", having completed this exercise, spread his arms and legs to the sides.
"Scissors". Sit near the shore in shallow water and move straightened legs up and down.
If within a few days the child gets comfortable with these exercises and does them with pleasure, try placing him with his chest on a rubber circle, arms extended forward. By kicking the water from top to bottom, balance is maintained, and the child swims. At first - without immersing the face, then exhaling into the water, and to inhale, turning the face to the side.

The next step is to learn to lie on your back. Let the child, standing with his back to the shore, slowly sit down, so that his chin touches the water, maintain balance with his arms outstretched to the sides and then lean his head back, plunging the back of his head into the water and gradually taking a lying position. Helping himself with the movements of his hands, he will lie on the water.

If this doesn’t work out right away, it doesn’t matter, at first, lightly support the novice swimmer.

It remains to learn how to slide on the chest. Entering the water, the child should turn to face the shore, sit down, stretch his arms with his palms down and, taking a breath, push off from the bottom. Show him how, in a position resembling an arrow, to swim to the shore; then teach him to do alternating rowing with his hands and quick movements with his legs.

The thermoregulatory mechanisms of the child are trained under the influence of both strong, but short-term cooling and relatively weak, to longer ones. In addition, researchers have found that hardening is most effective when not only individual parts of the body are cooled, but the entire body. This means that contrasting foot baths or dousing alone, for all their benefits, will not give the maximum effect. If you want your child to grow up strong, use the whole complex that we talked about!

If you have been tempering a child for more than a year, you can recommend a combination of water procedures followed by air baths, first in the room, and in the summer in the open air. After pouring or showering, do not dry your baby dry. Remove only large drops of water with light touches of a terry towel. Let it dry, remaining naked: as a result of the evaporation of moisture, the body is further cooled.

But it is impossible to allow the child to tremble. If he is cold - you need to do a light massage, rub it with a towel. Within a few days, repeat the douche followed by an air bath - and the child will get used to it, additional warming is not required.
We remind you that this procedure is potent, and hardening cannot be started with it.

Caution, gradualness, systematicity are the three principles that must be strictly adhered to when tempering a child.

When using the materials of the article, an active hyperlink to the source is required -

No one denies the great benefits of tempering procedures. But often parents are frightened by the very thought that the child should be taken out barefoot in the snow, poured with ice water every day.

Hardening principles

There are also frequent misconceptions that it is too late to harden a child at 5-6 years old. All these fears are groundless, because hardening procedures have a large number of methods in their arsenal, from very mild to extreme.

You can start healing even at preschool age. You just need to know the general rules for conducting wellness procedures, as well as some of the features inherent in each childhood.

Before starting to harden a child, care must be taken that the following principles will be observed.

Rules for hardening children 5 - 6 years old:

• the individual characteristics of the child must be taken into account. Firstly, his desire to harden in general, and secondly, the level of his health and ability;
• hardening is not an arena for demonstrating feats. Here the principle of gradualism must be respected. You can not abruptly switch to intensive procedures. Gradually, you need to reduce the temperature of exposure, open more and more parts of the body, increase the duration of the procedures;
• it is necessary to organize the security of events. And during the procedures themselves, it is important to monitor the condition of the child, to prevent hypothermia and overheating;
• the result depends very much on the mood of the child and the parent during hardening. Do not start if the mood is bad. And to create good, you can apply game elements;
• A complex approach. When introducing new hardening habits into a child’s life, it is also necessary to take care of observing the daily routine, proper nutrition and other preventive measures, such as massage, exercise;
• regularity. Hardening should be carried out every day. In order to make it easier to introduce new habits into life, it is convenient to draw up an action plan, where you need to include not only the main procedures, but also auxiliary ones, such as, for example, washing and washing hands with cool water, and also draw up a plan to increase the load at the initial stage. .

At the time of the beginning of hardening, the child must be completely healthy. It is impossible to introduce new procedures until the disease has completely subsided, especially for weakened children.

Before starting the introduction of a complex of hardening measures, it is recommended to visit a doctor so that he assesses the general health of the child and advises hardening procedures that are suitable for him.

Hardening procedures can be carried out in two modes:

1. elementary. The period of entry into the load, when the body gradually gets used to the effects of lower temperatures and other external factors. Its duration is usually 1-2 months;
2. supportive. The period when the loads remain basically constant, and change only depending on the time of year.

The initial and supporting stages may alternate. For example, with a long break in classes, you should return to the initial stage, and then again move on to the supporting one.

How to start tempering a child of 5 years?

You can harden with air, sun and water. Hardening methods can be general and specialized.

Hardening methods:

• sleeping outdoors;
• regular ventilation of the premises;
• clothes for the weather or a little lighter;
• washing and washing hands with cool water;
• walks.

Specialized activities include dousing, gymnastics, swimming and others. To obtain good and stable hardening results, both methods must be combined.

Air hardening. This is the most accessible hardening factor. It can be used at home and on the street, in kindergarten and in the country. We are talking about air baths. Moreover, in the summer it is necessary to distinguish between air and sun baths for safety reasons, since the requirements for their implementation are different. Thus, in the summer it is better to heal on the street in the shade.

Before holding air events in the room, it is desirable to ventilate it. Hardening should begin with a temperature of 21-23 degrees. And gradually lower to 16-18 degrees.

To harden a child of 5 years on the street, you should start with a temperature of 25-26 degrees, gradually lowering to 18 degrees. In very windy or rainy weather, it is better to move the lesson indoors. It should also be borne in mind that the initial stage when hardening outdoors should be more extended in time compared to indoor air baths.

Sun hardening. Hardening a child of 5 years old with the help of the sun must be carried out either in the morning before 10:00 or in the evening after 17:00. If at this time the sun is still very hot and scorching, then the beginning of hardening is best done in the shade of trees.

The starting time is 10 minutes. Gradually, within 1 - 1.5 months, the duration of sunbathing should be increased to 45-50 minutes. Upon reaching the specified duration of sunbathing, you can gradually shift the boundaries of the time of day of exposure to the sun. As a result, it is worth excluding only the time from 11:00 to 16:00.

water hardening

Hardening with water gives the most powerful healing effect. With a lack of vitamins in the water for procedures, you can add herbal infusions. There are quite a lot of ways to harden with water. You need to start hardening a child of 5 years old with the most gentle ones: with rubbing with a damp towel.

The main types of hardening with water:

Wiping with a damp towel. The procedure is best done in the morning upon awakening. It is carried out as follows: a towel is moistened in water, the limbs are squeezed a little, then the torso. Duration of rubdown is 3-4 minutes. You should start with a water temperature of 30 degrees.

Then every week it is reduced by one degree to 19 degrees, if hardening is carried out in summer and to 23 degrees, if in winter. At the end of the rubdown, it is necessary to rub the body with a dry towel to a pink color.

Contrasting rub. The execution technique is the same as in the usual one, only very warm and cold water is used alternately. The duration of the procedure is 5 minutes. If the child responds well to such rubdowns, then after 3-4 days the difference between temperatures can be increased by 1 degree. And bring in this way to wiping with hot and ice water. At the end, you also need to rub the body with a dry towel.

Pouring. Both individual parts of the body and the whole body can be subjected to this procedure. Douche can be carried out both with a shower and a container of water. You can start with local or general douches. The temperature regime at the beginning for local procedures is 28 degrees, for general procedures - 30 degrees.

For a week, you can reduce the temperature by 1-2 degrees, gradually bringing it up to 15 for local and 17 degrees for general douches. At the end of the procedure, rub the body with a dry towel until pink.

Cold and hot shower. It can also be applied to specific areas of the body or the entire body. The head is not involved in the procedure. The duration of the contrast shower starts from 30 seconds and is adjusted to 3 minutes within a month. They always start with a supply of warm water and end with it. The duration of the supply of warm water is always higher than that of cold water. They start with a temperature of 33 and 27 degrees, respectively, bringing up to 40 and 20 degrees within a month.

A large selection of methods allows you to create a hardening program that takes into account the individual characteristics of the child as much as possible. Depending on the general level of health and his personal preferences, you can start with the most sparing ones, moving forward in small steps. And you can go at a faster pace, using immediately stronger methods.

How to harden a child of 5 years?

When carrying out wellness procedures, it is necessary to observe safety measures so as not to harm health. In order to properly temper a child of 5 years old, you must first provide the necessary conditions.

Hardening scheme for a child of 5 years:

Proper hardening requires:

• lack of drafts;
• ventilated room;
• good weather calm or with a light breeze;
• headwear when sunbathing;
• pre-prepared towels, decoctions, thermometer.

The key to success in hardening a 5-year-old child is his good mood and willingness to feel discomfort. The easiest way to achieve this is by creating game conditions. You can come up with a plot and beat it in hardening events.

It is very easy to achieve the desired mood by combining air baths with gymnastics. These can be simple moving exercises with benefits for the musculoskeletal system. Hardening a 5-year-old child involves physical exercises lasting 25-30 minutes.

How to start hardening a child of 6 years old?

To start tempering a child of 6 years old, all recommendations for children of 5 years old with a slight difference in temperature and duration of procedures will do.

Start hardening indoors with the help of air baths should be from a temperature of 20-22 degrees and gradually lower to 15-17. For outdoor events, you need to start from 24-25 degrees, lowering to 17.

Hardening by the sun should be carried out according to the same scheme as for 5 years, only the duration of sunbathing as a result must be increased to 55-60 minutes. Be sure to use sunscreen if necessary. This applies to the southern regions of the country.

We will not make a discovery if we say that dousing with cold water is far from the only (and not the most effective, to be honest, although the most popular) way of hardening, especially children. And if parents really want to significantly improve the health of the baby, then they simply have to know: the system of adequate hardening of children includes many more activities and procedures than banal "games" with a cold shower. And even more! To properly temper a child, the whole family will have to reconsider their lifestyle ...

Indeed, it is foolish to assume that the older generation can actively harden babies without changing their own style of existence in any way. Fortunately, like a family business, a healthy lifestyle (and hardening as part of it) involves the involvement of all family members.

Tempering children: why is it necessary

As a rule, caring parents have much more banal cliché answers to this question than real and correct knowledge about how exactly children should be tempered. There is nothing surprising in the fact that everyone understands - hardened, it is much easier to endure certain serious diseases or operations.

And in general - in everyday life, a child with strong immunity, formed in the process of hardening, is usually more active, energetic and athletic, develops rapidly, has no problems with the digestive system and skin condition, and is less prone to allergic reactions.

And yet, you should not flatter yourself either - hardening children does not at all guarantee that the child will not get sick at all. Alas, no matter how strong and “impenetrable” human immunity may be, this is never an absolute guarantee against infection with a particular infection or other diseases. In other words: everyone can “catch”, for example, SARS, but a hardened organism will endure the disease more easily and recover faster.

The most correct approach: hardening as a way of life for the whole family

First of all, those parents whose children fall under the definition of "" think about hardening children. And they are absolutely right in believing that hardening a child with a weakened immune system will make him stronger and more resilient in the face of disease. However, parents most often mean by “hardening” a certain set of manipulations and procedures (which we will definitely talk about, but a little later!), meanwhile, in fact, the best hardening has on the child a lifestyle that is as close to natural as possible (which is consistent with our biological nature).

This means that the baby should spend a lot and often in the fresh air, move actively throughout the day, eat right and live in a room with an adequate climate - with moderate temperature and sufficient humidity.

It is no secret that a number of external factors have a huge impact on our health and well-being:

• natural and climatic: sun, air, water (and I must say that these factors most often favor health promotion, especially in children);
• household (the conditions in which we live, household chemicals that we use daily, etc.);
• our lifestyle (our food and our sleep, study or work, our leisure time, etc.).

As a biological species, humans are designed to move and live in nature. We are revitalized and energized by long walks in the fresh air, vacations in the countryside or by the sea, healthy eating from fresh products and simple dishes, etc. In contrast, our immunity is “bursting at the seams” under the influence of many hours of “sitting” at the TV or monitor, from life “locked up”, from overeating and “heavy” food, from a clear lack of sunlight and fresh air. And the child's body with such a lifestyle suffers doubly ...

So it turns out that the hardening of children in the first place does not consist in winter swimming, weekly fasting, running barefoot on the first snow and other “cool” health procedures, which, although good in essence, hardly contribute to the health of an unprepared child.

Tempering children is primarily a correction of your family's lifestyle, its focus on a more natural lifestyle, in which both adults and children spend a lot of time moving in the fresh air, eat right, create comfortable conditions for their health in the house and rationally distribute load in the form of study and work in order to avoid constant stress.

How to temper a child: myths, misconceptions and mistakes

Before talking about procedures and activities that help strengthen the child's immunity, it is worth talking about the "anti-hardening" of children, which most parents "sin" to one degree or another. There are three typical mistakes that parents (and especially grandmothers!) make in relation to children, and which practically negate any attempts to strengthen the child's immunity.

• 1 "Button up your jacket or you'll catch a cold!". Of course, the baby should be adequately dressed for the weather, but, alas, adults are sometimes overly zealous when wrapping the child. A large amount of clothing interferes with the correct heat exchange of the child and prevents free movement. Naturally, neither one nor the other contributes to recovery.

A popular pediatrician, Dr. E. O. Komarovsky: “Any doctor, even with minimal practical experience, will confirm to you that sweating in children causes colds hundreds of times more often than hypothermia. Regardless of the season and climatic realities, the child should be dressed in such a way that it is easy for him to move and he does not sweat.

• 2 “You won’t get up from the table until you finish your meal!”. Overeating is a huge medical problem of the modern generation, including children. The human body cannot boast of strong immunity if it is constantly overloaded with food. The main criterion governing the nutrition of the child should be his own appetite and only he alone, and not the principles that the grandmother or other relatives profess. The baby should consume exactly as much food as he needs to compensate for energy costs, and not as much as you managed to cook. And, in no case should you force him to swallow food further. Put down the plate and go for a walk with the baby, warning him that until the next meal (lunch, dinner, etc.) he will not receive any treats, snacks, sandwiches, etc.
• 3 "Got a two? You won’t go for a walk today!”. Daily walks in the fresh air and physical activity is a natural physiological need of a healthy human body. Therefore, depriving a child of walks as a punishment is akin to deprivation of food or sleep. Remember, the more time the baby spends indoors, sitting at lessons or a computer monitor, the weaker his immunity becomes. And vice versa - children who run around in the yard from morning to evening in any weather, as a rule, get sick extremely rarely and almost immediately. Walk with the kids! Ride bikes and scooters, rollerblade and ski, play funny and active games, go out of town for picnics - in a word, literally by personal example, bring up in your child the habit of living actively and harmoniously. And implicitly - thus strengthen his (and yours!) Immunity and "work up" a healthy appetite!

How to temper a child: activities and procedures

There are a number of special tempering procedures that have been tested by time and are quite effective for both adults and children. The main principle of implementing these procedures in life is gradualness and regularity! As well as compliance with simple general rules:

• you can start and carry out any hardening procedures only when the child is healthy;
• to start hardening a child, the season does not matter;
• it is extremely important that hardening procedures take their unchanged place in the daily routine (that is, they are performed at the same time);

Table of the duration of tempering procedures for children under 3 years old

Table of the duration of hardening procedures for children 3-8 years old

For children over 8-9 years of age, hardening procedures either become a regular daily ritual (part of the daily life of the family), or “grow” into a special sports regimen with a special training scenario and additional strengthening procedures (depending on the sport and individual characteristics of the child).

Tempering children: bathing in cool water, dousing and rubbing

water hardening with a gradual (!) decrease in temperature, you can begin to practice after the first month of a child's life. For the first 6 months, the water temperature for daily bathing ranges from 36 ° C to 34 ° C. After six months, the temperature is gradually reduced to 32-31 ° C. The duration of such a bath is 5-7 minutes (most often it is just the final part). After the baby has "swimmed" in cool water, it is taken out and doused with water 1-2 degrees colder than it was before in the bath. Then wrapped in a soft, cozy towel and rubbed lightly.

The duration and temperature of the water during pouring strongly depend on the age and condition of the child, on climatic conditions and on the personal preferences of the baby. There are children who, after several weeks of repeating this procedure (with a necessarily gradual decrease in temperature), “fall in love” with it so much that they can gladly douse themselves with cool enough water (22-20 ° C) for 1.5-2 minutes with each bath procedure .

Water temperature for tempering dousing children

After dousing the baby, you need to rub it slightly. Trituration in essence, it resembles intensive stroking of the skin in order to warm it up a little, to bring it into tone. It is best to dry your baby with a soft towel. Please note that the child should not experience any discomfort from the procedure, and even more so pain! A sense of proportion and tenderness are your best assistants in this matter. In addition, overzealous wiping reduces the hardening effect of a cool douche or shower, as it greatly increases the temperature of the skin.

How to temper a child every day: air and sunbathing, outdoor walks

Air baths useful for all children, but especially for babies. They not only have a general strengthening effect on the baby's body, but also improve the quality of the skin (which is very important for children suffering from, or various kinds).

If climatic conditions allow, such procedures can be combined with a walk in the fresh air and sunbathing, if not, the child should be tempered indoors, strictly observing "climate control". Namely: the baby is undressed and left naked for a while: starting from 5-7 minutes and the temperature is + 22 ° C. Gradually, day after day, the temperature is reduced to 16-14 ° C, and the duration of the air bath is increased to 15-20 minutes .

With comfortable weather in the yard, a child can wear shorts all day long (just ensure that his skin is adequate, and put something like a panama hat on his head!), And at the same time, his body will definitely become stronger, and immunity - stronger. It is very good if, at the same time, the baby spends part of the time barefoot - this will not only become part of hardening, but also provide the child with an excellent.

About walks in the fresh air, we console our hopes, it doesn’t make sense to tell you at all - being good and caring parents, you yourself are well aware that being in the fresh air for any human body (and for a child is doubly) is many times more useful " cuckooing" indoors. Children should walk every day, regardless of the weather, laziness and other circumstances.

Swimming in the sea, reservoirs, indoor and outdoor pools

Modern methods of hardening are advised to accustom the baby to swimming almost from birth.

Swimming is a great way to harden children at any age. It combines the hardening effect of cool water on the body and strengthening physical activity. It is only important to remember that the younger the child, the less time he should swim (children up to a year old - no more than a couple of minutes, but children 4-5 years old can already swim 8-10 minutes). At the same time, the water temperature in an open reservoir should not be lower than 22 ° C.

Gymnastics and physical activity

In fact, if a child leads an active lifestyle, moves a lot and jumps while walking in the fresh air (usually compassionate grandmothers say about such people that “he had an awl in his pope”), then it makes no sense to load him with some additional physical exercises. Except, perhaps, perhaps. Which, in fact, should consist of very simple exercises for “waking up”, warming up and lightly “stretching” the muscles and joints.

It should be fun and easy for a kid while charging - in fact, only you know about the seriousness of your event. And the child should just jump, squat, bend down and stretch in all directions, reasonably believing that you just play with him early in the morning ...

And remember - no child will do morning exercises alone. But on the other hand, being a born "monkey", he will accurately copy all your movements when you stand up for exercise with him.

Resourceful and adequate parents usually come up with a simple set of exercises for practicing with their baby. It is important that charging is easy, fervent, with pleasure and does not take more than 5-7 minutes. But if for some reason you are afraid to exercise on your own, you can always find a dozen good video instructions on the Web. Like this one, for example:

How to temper a child: in a nutshell

So, the traditional "rules for the refrigerator" - what needs to be done to harden the child:

• Walk daily and in any weather (with rare exceptions);
• Do not force to eat.
• Encourage any "physical education" - any hobby and any game in which the child is actively moving is suitable.
• Whenever possible, take the child to nature, out of town.
• Minimize contact with household chemicals.
• It is reasonable to distribute mental stress (if the baby is on duty and often gets sick, then perhaps 2-3 circles in which you wrote him down are actually superfluous).
• Maintain a healthy climate in the nursery - with a moderate temperature and sufficient humidity.
• If desired, regularly perform a simple set of tempering procedures with the children.

Any pediatrician and physiotherapist will confirm to you that a healthy lifestyle of the family as a whole (in which it is customary to spend a lot of time outdoors and in a good mood, which eats properly and moderately, in which they prefer outdoor activities and do not cultivate laziness) strengthens the children's body in dozens of times more successful and effective than any hardening procedures like dousing and air baths ...

Of course, the creation of such a lifestyle will require significant efforts from parents: after all, in order to once again take the child to the forest or to the river for the whole day, everyone will have to “tear the priests off the sofa” - both dad and mom ... But the result is more than attractive - not only one baby will become stronger, but the whole family as a whole!

How to temper a child? This question worries many parents. Almost all mothers and fathers know that hardening helps to get rid of frequent colds, strengthen the immune system and the health of the child. But how to harden a child? How to get the maximum effect from hardening?

How to temper a child: a few secrets

The key to proper hardening is systematic and methodical. If you decide to improve your child's health, then you need to take a comprehensive approach to this issue, it’s not enough just to harden it, you need to generally review the child’s daily routine, his diet.

So, the first step to health is not hardening, but changing the child's lifestyle. Only after your baby begins to live according to the regimen and eat right, you can start a systematic hardening program.

Why temper children?

Hardening is the most effective prevention of colds, respiratory diseases, SARS, heart. It is hardening that allows you to keep the body in good shape and maintain good spirits. That is why it is important to know how to temper a child?

If you decide to start hardening your child, then you should find out if there are special health groups in the kindergarten that your child attends. If yes, then you can rely on the experience of professionals and entrust the hardening of your child to educators. If there is no such group, then you need to take the initiative into your own hands.

How to temper a child: 10 rules for parents

1. The main hardening factors are sunbathing, water procedures, fresh air.

2. It is advisable to start hardening from the first months of a baby's life. If in infancy you did not accustom your child to hardening, do not worry, this can be done at any age.

3. The main thing for hardening a child is your perseverance and determination. If you have started hardening, do not take breaks, because even after a short break you will have to start all over again.

4. The nature of hardening should correspond to the age of the child. Innovations in hardening should be introduced gradually, with a uniform increase.

5. Before you start hardening a child, you need to consult a doctor. It is possible that the doctor will give any contraindications, then hardening should not be started. If there were no contraindications, and you started hardening, visit the pediatrician regularly from the first days of the procedures. If the health of the child worsens during hardening, then the procedure should be stopped and consult a doctor.

6. It is necessary to start hardening with air and water.

7. consists in the daily ventilation of the room where the child is located. Such ventilation should be done about three times a day, even in winter. In the summer, when it's hot, you can leave the windows open at all. The temperature in the room must be at least 18 degrees. Walk outside with your child more often. In the warm season, walking barefoot on seashells, gravel, grass, and stones is useful.

8. Do traditional procedures along with hardening - bathing and washing.

Start washing your child with cool water (28C) and gradually reduce the water temperature to 20C.

9. You can also do douche: bathe the baby in warm water (36 C) for 8 minutes, then pour cooler water over the baby. Every 5 days, reduce the temperature of the water for douching by one degree, it is necessary to reduce it to a temperature of at least 28C.

10. Before you start hardening your child, try hardening yourself to get your own idea of ​​the process.