Dr. Komarovsky about hardening children

The best way to protect a child from diseases is to carry out timely and competent prevention. Hardening is considered to be one of the best preventive methods. However, it is not necessary to rush headlong into extreme procedures, parents need to take into account various factors, such as the state of health of the baby, features of his immunity, his age. The well-known pediatrician Yevgeny Komarovsky often tells parents how to properly approach the issues of hardening toddler, children of preschool and school age.

Hardening of children is a set of measures to influence the children's organism of various natural factors, such as sunlight, water, air, and so on. It is often based on contrast (lowering and raising the temperature of the environment in relation to the temperature of the child’s body, increasing and increasing atmospheric pressure. The goal is to bring the body to alertness, adapt it to possible external stresses, thereby increasing its ability to resist the negative impact.

Doctors have long proved that systematic hardening improves cell composition., all organs and systems begin to act more coherently and better. Sleep and appetite are improved, blood circulation is normalized, metabolic processes, adaptation mechanisms are improved faster, the nervous system is strengthened. This method of prevention was known to healers of ancient Greece and Rome.

Methods of hardening medicine knows a lot. The most simple and affordable at home - rubbing and dousing, a douche, sunbathing, playing sports and walking in the fresh air. A relatively long stay in ice-cold water (the so-called winter swimming) is not recommended for children; a contrasting alternation of warm and cool water is best for them.

It is possible to harden a child as a whole or practice local procedures. - hardening of the throat, for example (for this there is a well-known and tasty way - ice cream). It is important that therapy is constant, because after a long break, the effect of hardening is minimized, and then lost altogether.

Yevgeny Komarovsky, like many of his colleagues, believes that all children are born with great immune capabilities and abilities. And the first years of the life of a new person are connected, alas, with the fact that the most loving people - parents - do everything possible and impossible to destroy these innate abilities to adapt to the world around them. To do this, they do nothing supernatural, it is enough to create a baby greenhouse conditions, warm clothes, monitor the sterility of food, which the baby consumes, close the vents and doors tightly, often give the child different medicines.

But actually the very issue of the transfer of Dr. Komarovsky dedicated to children's hardening.

The result will be a child who will often and strongly get sick with all imaginable and inconceivable diseases, first place among them, clearly, will be taken by colds and viral infections.

Yevgeny Olegovich is sure that children should be tempered from birth. The main thing is to do it every day, without missing a single procedure, and to approach hardening for reasons of reasonableness.If mom and dad thought and decided that they want to harden their child, they should start by consulting a pediatrician. The specialist will examine the baby, if necessary, prescribe laboratory tests, and make a verdict whether this particular child can be hardened, and which of the known methods is better to choose.

• For heart defects.
• Low hemoglobin in the blood (anemia).
• With influenza and acute respiratory viral infections in the acute stage, especially if the disease is accompanied by fever.
• In severe neurological conditions of the newborn.
• Deep premature babies and babies with different stages of exhaustion.

For a baby who was just born, ordinary rituals are quite suitable as tempering - morning exercises, dressing for a walk, evening bathing. If the pediatrician allows, you can gradually begin to pour the legs of the baby, first with cool water and then with cold water. The duration of the procedures should be gradually increased. It is not necessary to practice contrast baths, but walks should become an indispensable attribute of each infant’s past day, Yevgeny Komarovsky recommends walking with him regardless of weather conditions and season.

Washing - the very first hardening. It is desirable to acquaint the baby with water on the first day after discharge from the hospital, the main thing is that the water temperature was not lower than 28 degrees. It can be lowered by 2-3 degrees once every three months, no more.

You can pour a baby from birth, observing the temperature regime, which we have already described above. This should be done once a day, after swimming. First, gently pour heels, then the legs, arms, belly, and smoothly move to the back of the crumbs.

From six months the baby can be wiped with water using a special flannel mitten. At first - only the arms and legs, then you can wipe the back, and last of all - the chest and tummy.

Sunbathing is very useful for kids, because under the influence of ultraviolet radiation is produced vitamin d, which the body needs, so as not to develop rickets. The main thing is to dose the crumbs in the sun, to avoid prolonged exposure to direct rays on the baby’s skin.

Never late to temperconvinced Evgeny Komarovsky. Therefore, it is possible to begin such procedures for a child at any age, if in infancy it was not practiced by parents. The approach is still the same, however, from the age of three you can use a douche, and from 4 years old the child can be poured cold water on the street, but without fanaticism. From the age of three, a child can be allowed in the summer on a warm day for a rather long time to be outdoors in the same panties. Useful systematic visits to the pool.

• The conditions (water temperature, for example) should be changed only gradually. A sharp jump can negatively affect the child's well-being.
• It is desirable to carry out the procedure in a playful way, so that the crumb perceives what is happening as a fun activity and would like to be hardened.
• If the child begins to inadequately perceive the next increase or decrease in the temperature of water and air, he cries and naughty, it is necessary to stop the procedure, and the next day return to the previous temperature level.
• When dousing and rubbing should cover the genitals of boys, in order to avoid temperature fluctuations in the genital area, as this may later have a negative impact on reproductive function.
• In no case should one overfeed a child. He should eat when he wants it himself, and not when “the time has come,” according to mom and dad. A healthy baby is always a little hungry, moderately thin and very mobile, says Komarovsky. These three words should become reference points for caring parents.
• One of the most important factors in his hardening system, Yevgeny Komarovsky, considers the creation of normal conditions in the house where the child lives. Need regular airing at any time of the year, especially if the baby is sick. The air temperature in the room should not exceed 18-20 degrees, humidity - 40-60%.
• You can not bundle up a child, you should always wear it according to the weather. So, how are you dressed yourself. The thermoregulation of a small body can be disturbed by the fact that an overly loving mother or grandmother dressed a toddler for a walk in 2-3 blouses and a pair of jackets from above. Sweating - the right way to cold.
• Parents should be guided by the child's reaction to hardening. The temperature of water and air are purely individual factors, some will be higher, others lower, it all depends on how comfortable your baby feels during the procedures.

Komarovsky always emphasizes that tempering is not a cure, and it is impossible to rid the child of cold douche sinusitis or chronic bronchitis. It is designed to enhance immunity, even often sick children, but 100% does not protect against infection with influenza or ARVI. Even a hardened child can get sick. But, firstly, his chances of catching the infection are somewhat lower, and, secondly, he will take the disease faster and easier than his unhardened peers, whom his parents grow in greenhouse conditions.