What to eat to increase children’s resistance, foods to increase resistance, vitamins to increase resistance, ways to increase resistance for children, …. let’s learn more about how to increase resistance for children through the article below.

1. What is resistance?

Resistance is the ability to fight against external invaders such as: Viruses, bacteria, fungi, weather changes, other environmental factors, ….

When resistance is reduced, children are susceptible to infectious diseases such as: Flu, sore throat, rhinitis, bronchitis, ….

Immune deficiency causes weak resistance. In the body, the immune system includes organs, cells, tissues, proteins, white blood cells, … that act as a “protective barrier” to help fight pathogens. Decreased resistance often comes from the following factors:

• Malnutrition, Lupus erythematosus, …;
• Lack of sleep;
• Zinc nutrition;
• Drinking less water;
• Polluted environment.

Signs that children are having a decline in resistance:

• Wounds take a long time to heal;
• Prone to minor illnesses;
• Prone to infections (ear – nose – throat infections, pink eye, …)
• Digestive problems.

Children often have low resistance, especially from 6 months to 3 years old. Because at this time, the child’s immune system is not yet complete and is still weak. Weak resistance for a long time can affect the child’s development, movement, and absorption.

2. How to increase resistance for children

To increase resistance for children, it is necessary to combine a diet suitable for each age, combined with activities and living environment:

2.1 Appropriate diet

To increase resistance for your child, don’t forget to pay attention to:

• Feed your child on time to create good habits for the digestive system;
• Diversify your child’s meals with adequate/balanced nutrition;
• Give your child a bland diet;
• Give your child enough water.

To increase your baby’s resistance, parents should increase their baby’s intake of nutritious foods such as:

• Shrimp, crab;
• Fish: Salmon, sturgeon, tuna, carp…;
• Eggs
• Cereals: oats, barley,…;
• Dark-colored vegetables: Spinach, kale, carrots, bell peppers, pumpkin, sweet potatoes,…;
• Springs;
• Beans: Red beans, chickpeas, winged beans, peas,…;
• Fruits rich in vitamin C: Oranges, tangerines, grapefruits, kiwis,…;
• Yogurt;
• Spices: Garlic; ginger;
• Honey.

A scientific and suitable diet is the most effective and easiest way to increase your baby’s resistance.

2.2. Lifestyle

Unscientific lifestyle causes children’s health and resistance to decline. Therefore, to increase your child’s resistance, don’t forget to pay attention to:

• Choose appropriate exercises for children of each age;
• In addition to eating on time; parents should let their children sleep on time.

2.3. Living environment

To increase your child’s natural resistance, you need to keep the living environment clean, help with ventilation, and avoid dust and smoke.

2.4. Full vaccination

Vaccination is an effective way to help children fight common diseases. This is also an effective way to increase your child’s resistance. Accordingly, you need to pay attention to vaccinating your child fully and on schedule. Vaccination helps children get disease-preventing antigens, fighting against attacks from pathogens

3. Vitamins to increase children’s resistance

Increasing children’s resistance cannot be done without vitamin supplements. In fact, in the first 6 months of life, children rarely get sick because they inherit immunity from the fetus and colostrum from their mother. However, from 6 months to 5 years old, children are susceptible to viruses and bacteria because their immune systems are not fully developed. This “immune gap” causes children to often get sick every time the seasons change and often get infectious diseases. When treating, children often have to use many types of drugs, these drugs often have many potential side effects if used for a long time. Especially if the child’s immune system is not strengthened, the disease will take a long time to heal, often recur and there is a risk of secondary infection and drug resistance. Supplementing vitamins can increase children’s resistance.

3.1. Vitamin A helps increase children’s resistance

Vitamin A  plays a particularly important role in resistance. Vitamin A deficiency often causes fatigue, poor appetite, slow growth, dry skin and hair loss. Weak immune system and resistance make children susceptible to respiratory, digestive and skin diseases.

Therefore, every year there are programs to supplement high doses of vitamin A for children in June and December. Mothers can also supplement vitamin A through daily foods with foods rich in vitamin A such as eggs, fish, meat, animal liver, shrimp; vegetables with high carotene content such as water spinach, lettuce, Malabar spinach, amaranth… Red and yellow fruits and vegetables such as gac, carrots, papaya, mango,…

3.2. Vitamin E

Vitamin E  has the effect of protecting cells from infectious factors, helping vitamin A and cell fat avoid oxidation. Vitamin E also helps participate in cell metabolism.

Supplementing vitamin E through daily foods is the safest and most effective way to supplement vitamin E. Vitamin E is abundant in vegetable oils such as: Wheat germ, sunflower oil, soybeans, rice sprouts, bean sprouts, green vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, milk, fruits, etc.

3.3. Vitamin C

Speaking of improving the immune system and increasing resistance for children,  vitamin C  cannot be ignored. 90% of vitamin C is found in foods such as: Amaranth, Malabar spinach, fruits such as grapefruit, oranges, lemons, tangerines, etc.

3.4. Vitamin D

Vitamin D plays an important role in the body, especially in children in the development stage. Vitamin D is related to many functions of the body such as the immune system, digestive system, circulatory system, nervous system, etc.

Vitamin D is often found in sunlight that shines directly on the skin and converts chemicals in the skin into the active form of the vitamin (calciferol). You should increase your child’s intake of milk supplemented with vitamin D and fortified cereals.

3.5. B vitamins

B vitamins include B6, B9, B12, etc., which participate in the body’s immune mechanisms. Therefore, supplementing B vitamins is also essential in strengthening the baby’s immune system. Some foods rich in B vitamins that parents can supplement for their babies include rice bran, cereals, nuts, etc.

In addition to supplementing vitamins, parents can use additional benign herbs such as neem leaf extract, angelica extract, mango leaf extract, etc. combined with L-lysine and minerals to help strengthen the immune system from within. Increasing active resistance will help your baby prevent viruses and bacteria that cause respiratory diseases or support the treatment of common skin diseases caused by viruses such as chickenpox, measles, hand, foot and mouth disease, shingles, etc.