Tempering a young child
"If you want to be healthy — toughen up!" - these words have become the motto of several generations for a reason. Scientists have long proven that hardening can improve the condition of the body and increase the work of the immune system, as it adapts the body to sudden changes in the environment and adverse conditions. To adapt the body, of course, you need to gradually, and not immediately rush into a snowdrift, hoping for better health. It is best to begin to harden from childhood, so that from an early age the human body is not afraid of changes in the weather.
It is necessary to immediately determine that you can temper children from any age and even with weakened health, only carefully and in the latter case, start the procedures only when the child is healthy. The only contraindication is acute febrile diseases. And of course, it should be noted that for young children, hardening does not mean wiping with snow or dousing with ice water in the cold. This is a barely noticeable and systematic, and quite familiar to us, change in the temperature of the air or water, staying in the sun and bathing in natural reservoirs, with a further increase in time and the effect of external stimuli on the child. Remember that it is important not only to follow all the rules, but also to create a positive attitude in the child, so that the hardening does not look like a punishment, but rather a pleasant and useful joint pastime.
In the first month of life, you can temper the child with so-called air baths. They are a very simple action: before feeding the baby, you can hold it naked for a couple of minutes in a room where the temperature will be about 22-24°C. Such baths the baby can take daily, literally immediately after discharge from the hospital. In the summer, you can walk with a newborn on the street almost immediately after discharge from the hospital. Do not do this only if the baby weighs less than 2500 grams. At first, you can walk for half an hour a day, and then-for 6 or even 8 hours, because fresh air is very necessary for a growing body. In winter, the walking time, of course, should be significantly reduced: first, 5-10 minutes, and then-a maximum of 2 hours a day. By the way, sleeping in the fresh air is considered the most healthy and useful. At the same time, be sure to keep in mind that the air temperature for such hardening should be at least 10°C of frost, and clothing should be suitable so that the baby does not have hypothermia.
After the baby is one month old, his body becomes stronger, which means that the hardening can be gradually strengthened, for example, air baths can last longer (up to 15 minutes) and the air temperature can drop by 1-2 °C.
When the child is six months old, the water temperature during bathing can be reduced to 36°C, and after a twenty-minute bath, you can pour water over it, the temperature of which will be a couple of degrees lower than the one in which he just bathed, that is, about 34°C.
A child can swim in open water only after he turns one year old. And the time spent in the water should increase gradually, starting from one to two minutes, at a water temperature of at least 21°C. At the same time, it is not necessary to drag the child into the river by force – he must want to enter the water himself. At this age, you can begin to teach your child to sunbathe, but always with the use of a protective cream and at a safe time (from 9: 00 to 12: 00 and from 16: 00 to 18: 00).
To teach the child to the sun's rays is at an air temperature of + 20-30°C (but in no case higher), starting from 5 and ending with 40 minutes. More than this time, the child can not be under open sunlight. At the slightest redness, stop the procedure for a few days.
If these rules are followed in infancy and the continuation of competent hardening throughout life, your child will grow up to be a healthy person and will not be afraid of either cold or heat.
