Hi there! Welcome to Flawed yet Functional! If you want to live free from autoimmune captivity, I hope you are taking steps to also prevent them from occurring in your children. Don’t know where to start? Let me share 5 strategies to prevent autoimmune disease in your kids. These tips and tricks will allow you to create a healthy lifestyle and home for your children that promotes longterm health. Click through to read more!
When it comes to raising children, there is a phrase out there that states something like “you are raising adults, not children.” So when it comes to parenting advice on behavior or eating your vegetables, the idea is to be molding children into responsible adults rather than excusing away childish behavior.
In the same way, this theory applies to child health. If your child is in a family that has autoimmune diseases, then the child’s diet and lifestyle habits should be the same as an adult who is trying to prevent or control the autoimmune disease. After all, they will be an adult one day so in regards to their health, treat them as an adult.
Kids need a healthy diet and lifestyle too. However, their age and ability to think outside their situation is minimized at their developmental level. So as their parent, you need to help them establish a healthy life and diet that minimizes the chances of autoimmune disease.
Let’s check out 5 strategies to change today in your child’s life to help him or her prevent autoimmune disease.
Genetic Testing
Some autoimmune diseases, like Type 1 Diabetes, have genetic markers that predispose a person to diabetes. These markers can be tested by a blood draw. While genetic testing is not always available for all autoimmune diseases, wouldn’t knowing your child might be at risk give you a fire to change your home environment?
Check with your pediatrician to see if genetic testing is available for the particular autoimmune diseases that concern you. While it is believed that autoimmune diseases are not always hereditary, I would always proceed with caution and assume that they are. I personally would not want my children to contract diabetes, so I am taking all the precautions that I can with my children.
Sources and Further Reading
Autoimmune Disease Diet
Diet is incredibly effective at minimizing or eliminating autoimmune disease and symptoms. Autoimmune diseases are rooted in the gut, so any diet that promotes good gut health is one to follow. Look for a diet that is high in vegetable intake and reasonable meat and fruit intake. The diets I have personal experience with and have seen great healing from are the Autoimmune Protocol (sometimes called Paleo Autoimmune Protocol) and the Paleo Diet.
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Eat More Vegetables
In the standard American diet, children’s food is littered with processed sugars and flours designed to make food palatable for kids. Once again, I’d like to emphasize that we are raising adults, not children. They need to know how to decide which vegetables to eat, how to cook them, and even how to eat them when they don’t like them. Work to get your children to eat vegetables regularly and plentifully. This will benefit them their whole life long!
Eliminate ALL Gluten
Gluten is the latest food “bad guy” in some respects. However, there is medical research supporting that there is something about gluten that triggers an autoimmune reaction within your body. So if you or someone in your family has autoimmune reactions, it is likely that your children will as well someday. As a precautionary measure, eliminate gluten from your diet. Don’t replace it with a non-gluten processed food, but replace it with whole foods, nuts, vegetables, and fruit. Once you get used to not buying gluten products, you will realize you don’t miss them at all!
Another reason to eliminate gluten from you and your children’s diet is to prevent further autoimmune reactions from occurring. Ignoring the trigger (which, granted, may not be gluten, but gluten is the low-hanging fruit and an easy one to eliminate first) will likely cause another autoimmune disease to develop. In particular, type 1 diabetes it is highly linked with celiac and various skin disorders. If you eliminate the trigger of the autoimmune diseases, then you will eliminate the other autoimmune diseases from developing as well. Wouldn’t you want to save your children from multiple autoimmune diseases? I would!
Sources and Further Reading
- 8 Ways to Prevent Autoimmune Disease
- 4 Reasons Gluten and Autoimmune Diseases Don’t Mix
- Going Gluten-Free in Non-Celiac Autoimmune Diseases
- Associated Autoimmune Diseases
Sufficient Quality Sleep
Sleep plays a necessary function in everybody’s body. During sleep, your body can heal while getting rested and rejuvenated to tackle the next day. The same is true of your children’s bodies. If they are not getting sufficient sleep, they will suffer emotionally and physically which will hamper healing from an autoimmune disease. Just as there are guidelines for adults for how many hours of sleep they should get, the same is true for children. Check out the references below to see how many hours of sleep your child should get depending on their age and work towards getting it.
If your kids are not in the habit of going to bed on time and sleeping for a sufficient period, this may be a very difficult step. But just as our circadian rhythm as adults needs a set sleep and wake time, so does your children’s. If they are old enough to understand, then explain to them why you are working on their sleep schedule and how important it is to their health. Once they learn to sleep, you all will be happier healthier people (for the long haul!).
Sources and Further Reading
- Sleep Disorders and Increased Risk of Autoimmune Diseases in Individuals without Sleep Apnea
- How Much Sleep Children Need
- How Much Sleep Do Children Need?
Get Outside/Vitamin D
One huge benefit of getting your kids outside each day (beyond just incredible playtime!) is the opportunity for them to absorb vitamin D straight from the source: the sun. Vitamin D has many functions but recently has been found to regulate the immune response within the body. Deficiencies in vitamin D are being found more and more in autoimmune disease patients, and when treated with vitamin D, the severity and progression of the disease improves.
While vitamin D is important to the health of your child’s immune system, it is often hard to get enough from the sun. Where I live, it is so far north that it is difficult to keep up the proper level of vitamin D, even when outside every day. Odds are with time spent in school or other indoor activities, kids (and adults) are not outside enough. Consider including a vitamin D3 supplement into your children’s diet. It’s a preventative measure, but one that will bolster their immune system.
Sources and Further Reading
- The Implication of Vitamin D and Autoimmunity
- Vitamin D in Autoimmunity: Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutic Potential
- Low Levels Of Vitamin D In Patients With Autoimmune Disease May Be Result, Not Cause, Of The Disease
Get Moving
Exercise is so important for your children’s body, and your own body. Adults are well-versed in knowing that they should be moving every day. We often take great measures to make sure we get our exercise: signing up for gym memberships to exercise classes to taking up new hobbies that are outside and/or active. Do we take the same measures for our children?
Some children naturally gravitate to being outside and moving around on their own. They’re active and moving without any encouragement. However, some children need some encouragement in that direction. Consider activities for them or for your whole family that will get that moving and, perhaps, get outside. Knock out your vitamin D requirement and your exercise requirement at the same time!
Hours in front of a screen, video games, or TV has many negative health effects and one of them is that it limits movement. It does not encourage them to use their bodies to move fast, support heavy weight, or encourage agility. We have all made jokes about the good old days of when we were kids, but there is great good to climbing trees, walking through the woods, building forts, and all the things that we grew up doing as kids. Create an environment where your children can enjoy the same things.
Sources and Further Reading
- The Connection Between Exercise and Autoimmune Flares
- Why Kids Need Exercise
- Physical Activity and Autoimmune Diseases: Get Moving and Manage the Disease
Just because you have an autoimmune disease does not necessarily mean your children will develop it as well. Autoimmune diseases can be triggered by a number of things: food, environmental factors, overly hygienic society, etc. Take steps to prevent the factors that are preventable in your family. While you can’t control everything, do the things you can with confidence that you are creating a better life and long-term health for your child.
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