2023-09-07 15:21:45
Never skip breakfast and avoid using your smartphone in the evening before going to sleep. These are just some of the tips from family paediatricians for peacefully experiencing the resumption of the school year and the return to pre-summer rhythms. In less than a week, over 8 million children and young people will return to school and resume normal daily activities: how can we help them best cope with their return? According to the experts of the Italian Federation of Pediatric Doctors (Fimp), great attention must be paid to the quality and duration of sleep, nutrition and sharing quality time in the family.
Sleeping the right number of hours and well – they recommend from Fimp – is essential for restoring energy, improving mood and having good concentration in class and when carrying out other activities such as playing sports or dedicating yourself to a hobby. For this reason, we must not underestimate the negative effects of sleep deprivation on the body and the importance of regularity in going to sleep and waking up.
“With school just around the corner, it’s time for children and young people to resume their pre-summer sleep-wake rhythms – explains Giuseppe Di Mauro, Fimp national secretary for scientific and ethical activities – The advice for parents is to wake up early in the days before returning to school, setting it to the start time of lessons, and paying attention to the time they fall asleep, aiming to create a routine that can balance the rest of your children. Furthermore, the use of devices should be prohibited such as smartphones or tablets before going to sleep. It is widely demonstrated that exposure to blue light inhibits the melatonin production process, leading to difficulty falling asleep and poor sleep quality. Finally, it is good to remember that the older the child The younger you are, the more sleep you need: 10-13 hours of sleep is recommended for children aged 3-5, 9-11 hours for children aged 6-13 and no less than 8-9 hours for children aged 14-14. 17 years”.
For experts, restoring correct eating habits is equally important to help children and young people face their school and sporting commitments in the best psycho-physical conditions. “It is appropriate – remarks Di Mauro – to pay particular attention to breakfast which constitutes the most important meal of the day and, as such, must provide the right amount of all those elements – carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and fats – which contribute to providing energy and promote concentration throughout the day.More generally, a regular diet must include 5 meals a day (breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, snack and dinner), prepared according to the principles of the Mediterranean diet, and Meal times must gradually align with those that accompany the school routine”.
Also not to be overlooked is the positive impact that small moments of family sharing can have on the little ones: a suggestion is to use breakfast as an opportunity for the whole family to meet, before everyone immerses themselves in their daily commitments. Further advice from paediatricians to prepare children for returning to school and alleviate the stress that this can generate is to involve them personally in the purchase of the materials necessary for the resumption of school activities, such as backpacks, notebooks, diaries, books.
“As family paediatricians – underlines Antonio D’Avino, Fimp national president – it is very important for us to guide parents in setting up a correct routine with their children, and to help them create harmony within the family unit, especially in a ‘critical’ moment such as the return to school which coincides with a greater workload and stress for parents. In an era of great transformations in family models, it is important to build daily life habits capable of exerting direct benefits on physical and psychological health of the whole family. Part of this path is the sharing of simple but essential rules for healthy growth such as eating in a balanced way, resting adequately and having an active lifestyle through sport or other activities that keep the mind and body trained.”
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