The best start to school: strengthening children's immune defences

How we can help our children start autumn strong and focused! Helpful tips from Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda.

School has started again, autumn is approaching, and with it the time when our children's immune systems are under more strain.

Why should we strengthen the immune system at the start of school? Quite simply: children have more contact with other people again, spend a lot of time indoors, may move less in the fresh air and, especially at the beginning, have some stress from new challenges. They first have to get used to the new class again and to the schoolwork that is now coming their way.

If we support our children's immune systems with a few very simple tips, it not only helps make them less susceptible to infectious diseases, but can also help them start the new school year more focused and balanced!

But of course these tips apply just as much to us! We should also strengthen our immune defences in autumn.

First of all, it is important that we help our children find their way back into their routines. A shared evening and morning routine can create a sense of stability and security. Make sure they get enough sleep too. Children usually need more sleep than adults. Between 9 and 12 hours would be ideal. Younger children need considerably more sleep. The older they get, the less sleep they need. As with us adults, though, it should be at least 8 hours.

Daily activity is also important for strengthening the immune system. Exercise in the fresh air stimulates the senses, which helps the body reduce stress. Exercise also activates certain cells that fight viruses and bacteria. Walking, playing outside or doing sport can therefore quite simply help strengthen the immune system naturally!

Of course our daily medicine, nutrition, also plays an important role when it comes to our children's health. It does not only strengthen the immune system; a balanced diet is also important for our children's physical and mental growth.

Getting enough micronutrients is often not that easy for children. Children only want to eat what they like, and that is often sweet food. This increases the risk that their diet becomes very one-sided and that they take in too little of many important nutrients. Yet these are needed, as they are the building blocks for the various defence substances in the body.

Particularly important for the immune system are the fat-soluble vitamins D, E, K and A, vitamin C, and iron and zinc. But of course all the other micronutrients should not be neglected either.

Optimal intake is easiest to ensure when the diet is very varied. Different grains and pseudo-grains can be used, such as pasta, rice, quinoa or millet. Vegetables of different colours also bring a lot of different nutrients. Cooking together and involving children in choosing food can help make food appealing to them. Children often have an irregular appetite, which we should accept. It often helps to give children the feeling that they have a say in when and what is eaten. This can strengthen the sense of community and give us, as role models, the chance to find healthy eating habits.

Too much sugar and processed food can impair our system and lead to strong blood sugar fluctuations that make children restless and unfocused. We feel this quite quickly too. If we drink coffee in the morning with a sweet pastry, we can quickly become nervous and unbalanced and feel stressed. Our children can feel the same way if, first thing in the morning, they eat lots of simple carbohydrates, e.g. in the form of a sweetened muesli. Complex carbohydrates would be better, as they raise blood sugar levels only slowly and keep us and our children full for longer. Millet, buckwheat or oat flakes cooked with nuts and seeds are a great start to the day!

If we look at the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda on children's nutrition and the immune system, we can clear up a few myths straight away.

"Children need milk and dairy products to grow big and strong" – many people know this sentence. TCM sees it a little differently. Especially in autumn and winter, children are often prone to colds and mucus in the airways. Dairy products in particular intensify these symptoms because of their moistening properties. To take in enough protein and trace elements, children should eat more nuts, seeds and vegetables. This brings us straight to the next point.

A typical school snack often consists of a sandwich, vegetable sticks, fruit and a sweet. From a TCM perspective, however, all these things challenge our children's immune systems. Bread also has a moistening effect and can therefore contribute to increased mucus. Grain porridges, for example millet or rice porridge, are better. Instead of muesli with cooling yoghurt for breakfast, a warm grain porridge with stewed fruit would make more sense.

Fruit and vegetables are of course important components and provide our children with lots of vitamins. But here, too, there is an objection. Fruit contains many micronutrients, but also an extremely large amount of sugar. Sugar promotes inflammation and inhibits the immune system, which is why fruit should also be reduced, especially at the start of the cold season. When fruit is eaten, it always helps to steam it lightly to make it easier to digest.

In TCM, autumn is associated with, among other things, the lungs. We therefore want to strengthen and support the lungs. For our children, we can mix a little almond butter into their grain porridge and mix warm juices such as pear juice with a little water.

Finally, there were the vegetable sticks in the snack box. Vegetables are great for giving our bodies many different macro- and micronutrients. But here, too, TCM has an objection. Raw food, and therefore raw vegetables, has a cooling effect and cools the spleen, which is a central organ of our immune defence. Vegetables are great, but ideally steamed or cooked, in soups or stews. Especially in autumn we should reduce cooling foods such as raw food and dairy products and favour cooked, warming dishes instead.

After all these tips on how we can support our children, it is also important to find enough “off time”. Times when there is no sports class coming up and no musical instrument to practise. Times when children can follow what they need right now, get creative, are free from stress or pressure and can have a little time to themselves.

The start of school is often a little hectic, so we and our children need short breaks again and again.

We can use some of these tips for ourselves, too. Let’s take our health and our children’s health into our own hands now.

If you would like to learn more about the right diet for you, feel free to contact Isabella Breisch (nutritionist).