Parenting during Lockdown
‘Parenting during Lockdown‘ is the first in the series of webinars conducted in association with Rainbow Children’s Hospitals.
- Courtesy: Rainbow Children’s Hospital
- Our gratitude to Dr. Madhusudan for his precious time
- Special thanks to Mr Satyajeet and Mr Harindu from the Hospital for organizing this event.
Summary - Parenting during Lockdown
We had an amazing discourse from Dr. Madhusudan on ‘Parenting during lockdown’ followed by questions and answer session with the parents.
Here is the excerpts from the interaction:
We, as parents, must take care of our children by focussing on these 5 aspects of their lives:
1. Physical:
The health of the children is most important. We can take care of their health by:
- Ensuring they get healthy food with a good mix of carbs, protein and minerals
- Have freshly cooked food.
- One good effect of Lockdown is that our junkfood intake has gone down
- Expose them to sunlight. Best time to expose to sunlight is between 10 AM and 3 PM.
- Encourage them to do some exercise
- Hygiene must be taken care of Corona has taught us some good hygiene practice. those should be part of our daily lives even after corona is over.
- 8 hours sleep is a must
2. Social:
Children must be encouraged to improve their social quotient. They must be encouraged to interact with otther children. Given current situation, physical contact may not be feasible. We can encourage them to use technology or other platform to facilitate such skill development
3. Intellectual:
Children’s intellectual prowess must be enhanced. It may not include merely academic input but may inlcude reading habit, story telling etc.
- Ideally we should stop screen exposure (Mobile, Computer, Television etc), at least one hour before bed time.
- During this one hour, children should be encouraged for 3 Bs: Brush, Book and Bed.
- Children should be asked to take a book to the bed and read till they fall asleep
- Parents should either read out a story to the children or should narrate a story without a book.
4. Emotional:
As a parent, we must connect with our children emotionally. Take some time to play with them. Encourage them to ask questions and answer them patiently.
5. Spiritual:
Dr. Madusudan also emphasized on need for a routine in the day. Since lockdown is going on, one may tend to oversleep or may have unscheduled lifestye. We should try to bring in a schedule, which may be flexible but a routine nonetheless. ‘
Parenting during Lockdown - Q&A
Q: How to bond with Teenage daughters
Q: Teenager children tend to be lethargic and arrogant. What to do?
Combining the answer to these two questions:
Teenage is a difficult time. We should not try to force coerce or blackmail our children into doing something. The best way is to set an example. e.g. if we perform exercises daily at home, the children may be reluctant initially. But over a period of time, there are high probability of the child to join us for exercise by watchiing us rather than by us forcing them to do so.
We must connect with teenagers at emotional level and give space to them
Q: My 22 months twins do not eat properly. What should I do?
Try different things to find out taste of the child.
Offer them a good blen dof carb and protein.
Don’t panic if the child spits some food. Its normal.
Try traditional method of offering food
Q: What should I do to help improve immune of my child. Should I provide supplements?
Infections (like Cough, cold etc) are not bad. It is said that a child may have 10-12 infections a year. such infection also helps in building immune, It has been observed that the child having illnes during early phase of life may develop a good immune system over a period of time. So dont worry much.
Consulting a doctor is a good option in case infection gets worse.
In current scenario, many hospitals havve started video consulting. That facility can be availed to avoid going out.
There is no need to provide suppement to boost imuunity. Let the child have home made food with one portion of carbohydrate (as per local availability and taste like rice, wheeat raagi etc), one portion of protein (e.g. pulses) and some vegetables for minerals and other nutrients. That should suffice for improving immunity.
Q: My 2 months child has not come out from house. Will it lead to nutrient defficiency?
A: Though we get most of our nutrients from food, vitamin D is observed by our body. Since child has not been brought out , vitamin D supplement can be provided based on advice of the doctor.
Q: My son is not socially active but plays guitar at home. Should I be concerned on his social skills?
Every child is different and has his/her own skills. There is no rigid right and wrong. Let the child nurture his/her talent and grow. As a parent, let us provide right kind of environment for teh child to grow.
Q: My 6 months old child is scheduled for vacination. Given current situation (COVID), is it fine to delay vaccination?
A: Most of the hospitals have started vaccination. So, one can visit the OPD section for vaccination However, it is find to delay 6-month vaccine by a couple of weeks so not an issue to be worried about.
Video
Here is what Dr. Madhusudan said during webinar.
His speech is covered completely though, the video got interrupted during Q&A session.
Please enjoy the video and fel free to let us know yoru feedback.
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