Teaching good health vs. good looks

Watch Video: Teaching good health vs. good looks by Cara Natterson, MD, ...
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Teaching good health vs. good looks

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Tween range in age from 8 to 12. Their body development is going to range as well. A child who is a young tween, is probably going to be relatively undeveloped; whereas, at the end of the tween years, about half of the girls have already gotten their period. Teaching body awareness to this age group is really teaching them a whole lot about how the body is changing. The three core tenants of body awareness, that are most important, are; nutrition, exercise, and sleep. This doesn't change from when your kids are really little. You want to teach tweens that what they put into their body, fuels their body and should be healthy; and they should keep bad things out of their body. You want to make sure you teach them to exercise, every single day; a minimum of 60 minutes. They do not have to do it all at once, but they do need to do it for 60 minutes every day. You want to emphasize the importance of sleep. Sleep for growth, sleep for restoration. It's really, really important. When it comes to tween body awareness, I think we need to teach them it is about health, not about looks. If you teach your tween how to maintain a healthy body, their body will look good. If you teach your child that it is about looks, you tend your child concepts about insecurity and low self-esteem. Emphasize health and well-being. Your job, as a parent, is to keep your child healthy and safe, that's it. Teach your tween, that their job is the same, healthy and safe.

Watch Video: Teaching good health vs. good looks by Cara Natterson, MD, ...

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Cara Natterson, MD

Pediatrician & Author

Cara Natterson, MD has treated thousands of children and guided their parents as well. She was a partner at Tenth Street Pediatrics in Santa Monica, California, a large group practice serving infants, children and teenagers. She now runs Worry Proof Consulting, the first of its kind pediatric practice that offers parents open-ended time to review everything from medical questions and biology basics to child development and parenting issues. Cara is also the author of several books on parenting and child health. She has a unique ability to translate cutting edge research into understandable terms for parents and their kids. More recently, Cara’s consulting has extended beyond individual families to include fortune 500 companies seeking expert advice on safety issues, child health, and crisis management.

Cara has appeared on television, in print, and on the web. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and she trained in pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco. Cara is a Board certified pediatrician and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. And anyone who knows her knows that Cara is, by nature, one of the most risk-averse people on earth. She lives in California with her husband and two children.

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