9 Effective Ways of Increasing Your Child's Immunity

Team AckoFeb 8, 2024

Looking for effective tips that help in increasing your child's immunity? Well, there are ways to boost your child's immunity, which you must adhere to. Recurrent fever, cough, cold and running nose, these are the common problems most of the kids have. Many parents think that it is really difficult to protect their child from seasonal infection, which their little ones come across every now and then. Every parent’s priority is to keep their kids healthy and what could be better, if parents can keep them healthy by boosting their immunity naturally rather than giving them several medications.

Effective Tips to Increase Your Child's Immunity

You can definitely take help of these 9 ways to improve immunity in your child:

1. Good nutrition

This is an essential factor to keep your child healthy! A plate full of adequate nutrition will definitely help in improving immunity. We should always try to remove junk food off from our child’s daily diet. Instead, you can give them equivalent tasty but healthy options. Parents should include all seasonal leafy, colourful fruits and vegetables to their kid’s diet as they have plenty of vitamins and minerals to make your child stronger, salads must always be a part of their meal. Carrots, green beans, oranges and strawberries, they all contain immunity-boosting phytonutrients as vitamin C and carotenoids, which increase the production of white blood cells and helps in fighting infections.

2. Adequate sleep

It is very important for your baby to follow healthy sleeping routines. Adequate sleep is must to rejuvenate body and thus, it is essential to keep them healthy. Time of sleep varies according to the age of the child. A newborn baby needs at least 18 hours of sleep while a toddler requires a minimum 13–14 hours of sleep. For proper melatonin (sleeping hormone) secretion, it’s better if they sleep in a dark room. Good amount of sleep and proper nutrition will directly relate to their activity in the daytime. A strict regular bedtime routine should be followed by your kid, so that your child can relax which basically makes them strong within, to fight infections outside.

3. Daily exercise

Exercise is the most crucial factor to improve immunity which most of us neglect every time. We can mould our kids to have a habit of excising daily at a very tender age. Children can very well start exercising for 10 minutes initially and can increase the time by practising it daily. As a parent, you can introduce some easy exercises to your kid’s routine, like PT in school. Research shows that a child who works out daily tends to have improved immunity power than others.

4. Developing hygienic habits and creating a healthy home environment

A small change in daily habits will make a big difference to improve immunity in kids. Parents should ensure the sanity of their kids. For e.g. hands and feet should be washed after going to the toilet and after every playing session. The habit of bathing and brushing teeth twice daily should be incorporated in them from a tender age. Keeping a bottle of sanitizer or a bunch of wet tissue papers in the purse, for instance, cleaning can always be the best option if you are travelling along with kids. Also to raise a healthy kid, parents should always try to make the home environment healthy. For e.g. smoking should be prohibited at home as smoking not only affects the smoker but others too. Similarly, houses should be dust and pest free, so that there will be fewer chances for the kid to develop allergies. Also, house gardens and garage should be cleaned on regular basis. These habits won’t improve immunity directly but will decrease the amount of germ exposure to kids, which ultimately helps them stay healthy.

5. Breastfeed the little ones

For infants and toddlers up to 2 years, breastfeeding is the best way to increase and improve immunity, because it contains several antibodies which help in boosting up the immune system and helps fight against diseases. Colostrum, the yellow milk during the first few days after birth, is especially rich in disease-fighting antibodies. Breastfeeding lowers your baby’s risk of having asthma and allergies. Infants who are breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months, without any formula, have fewer ear infections, respiratory diseases, and diarrhoea. Research shows that breastfeeding also enhances the brain power in children.

6. Giving your kid a stress-free environment

It is the most hidden factor which suppresses the improvement of the immune system. Most parents don’t know that a stressed child is more likely to fall ill in comparison to other stress-free kids. Stress elevates the level of cortisol and adrenaline hormones in the body, which eventually lowers the response of the immune system. Parents should try to create stress-free environments at home. For e.g. speak to your kids often and find out what is currently happening in their life, spend some quality time, laugh a lot and play with them, also give them some free time to do some creative activity. Parents’ love and support can be the best stress buster for kids.

7. Introduce Pro-biotics 

Yogurt and other fermented food contain pro-biotics which help to improve the immune system. Research shows that people who include pro-biotics in their daily diet, tend to suffer less by cold, throat and ear infections. Yogurt also keeps the digestion system healthy. Yogurt contains calcium, vitamin B-2, vitamin B-12, potassium which contributes to keeping the child healthy.

8. Sunshine exposure

Research explains the beautiful benefit of sunlight in boosting immunity. All of us know that sunlight improves the level of vitamin D but researchers report that exposure to sunlight appears to activate T cells, so they move rapidly throughout the body, which boosts up the immune system. Most of the doctors also recommend taking newborn babies in direct sunlight or giving them vitamin D supplement to decreases the chance of jaundice in newborns.

9. Home remedies work wonders to boost immunity

Boosting immunity in kids is very easy by some lifestyle changes and home remedies. And it will be more effortless if you can boost immunity by some easily available herbs, spices and vegetables like ginger, garlic, lemon, honey, green tea, turmeric etc. For e.g. Eating some basil (tulsi) leaves daily increases the immune power, also you can give a small amount of powdered mixture of liquorice (mulethi) root and add honey (shahad) and ghee to it. Put 1–2 almonds in water, overnight and give it to your child in morning to improve his immunity. But all the home remedies should be given only after a doctor’s consultation.

Making small changes in their daily routine can protect your little one from repetitive and seasonal infections. So just try these easy hacks to improve immunity in your kids. For more tips on keeping your child healthy and hearty and tracking their daily development, download the Parentlane App today!

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only, based on industry experience and secondary sources. It is not a substitute for professional advice. Please consult a qualified expert for health or insurance-related decisions. Content is subject to change, refer to current policy wordings for specific ACKO details.