CHILDREN HARDENING, STRAINING OF SMALL CHILDREN
Baby hardening is especially important for toddlers of infants and debilitated children (premature, suffering from malnutrition, rickets, diathesis, or other allergic diseases). Child hardening is based on the property of the body to gradually adapt to unusual conditions. The transition from weaker in terms of the effects of tempering procedures to stronger ones (by lowering the temperature of air, water, and increasing the duration of the procedure) should be carried out gradually. Hardening has a tonic effect, improves blood circulation, improves the tone of the nervous system, and normalizes metabolism. In the process of hardening, conditioned reflexes are formed and fixed, which contribute to the formation of protective reactions. Due to this, the child’s body gets the opportunity to adapt to changing conditions and endure excessive cooling, overheating and other adverse effects without serious consequences. With repeated and systematic use of cold water there is an increase in the formation of heat, the skin temperature rises, the stratum corneum thickens, and the intensity of stimulation of the receptors in them decreases. All this increases the adaptation of the child’s body to a low temperature.
Hardening is only effective when cold water is poured over a warm child. After all, with the right approach, hardening increases immunity and makes the child protected from colds. The main thing – do not abuse and do not confuse the usual hardening with the help of water, air and sun with winter swimming. After all, turning a child into a “walrus”, parents are unlikely to really harden him. Another negative effect of winter swimming can be a change in the child’s behavior: he will become either very restless or, conversely, passive. The production of enzymes decreases, because of which the tummy can swell, intestinal dysfunction will begin. Winter swimming is better for teenagers, and babies may well wait.
You can begin hardening from any age. But the sooner, the healthier and more stable the child will be. Hardened children look great, they have a good appetite, restful sleep, they grow quickly and rarely get sick. Hardening can begin even in the first days after birth. True, after consulting with a doctor. If the baby is healthy, you can carry out various air or water procedures with the help of showers and rubdowns. The main rule of hardening – the constancy of procedures and a gradual increase in their intensity. If you stop at the same level of load – for example, watering the child constantly with water of the same temperature without decreasing it, or dousing rarely, for example, several times a month, there will be no effect from such hardening. The next important point is hardening only if it is effective when cold water is poured over a warm, heated child. After all, if the baby freezes, and his hands and feet become cold, the water with which he is poured will seem almost warm, and the result of such “hardening” may turn out to be exactly the opposite. The most difficult task is to establish the first load for the baby. It should not be weak, because then it is not effective, and should not be too strong, stressful, since it is known that stress suppresses the immune system, and we have the opposite task – to strengthen it. You can temper your baby right in the bath. Let him first warm up in warm water, and then he should be invited to play: for example, turn on cold water, and he will substitute heels and palms. And so at least 3 times. After the last exposure to the cold, it is necessary to wrap the child in a sheet and a blanket, hold it, not wiping, but soaking the water, then put it on in night clothes and put it in bed. For a better hardening effect, the procedure should be gradually changed by increasing the time of cold procedures. Subsequently, the child himself begins to demand more cold douches, and often refuses from hot water. When a child gets used to drenching his feet with cold water, in winter it is possible to increase the tempering effect by running barefoot in the snow. It is necessary to choose a snow-covered place: the snow should be clean, while the ground should be under the snow, not concrete and not an asphalt road. The baby should be dressed so that the shoes are easily removed and worn. Better, for example, tracksuit, wool socks and boots. First, he needs to run a little to warm up. If the baby gets flustered, you can be sure that his legs are not cold. Then he can take off his boots and get up in the snow, at first literally for a second. Then quickly wipe his feet from the snow with a diaper and shod, starting with the feet, which he first put on the snow. Then again, you need to run in boots. The duration of jogging in the snow at first is very short, then you can increase. This procedure will especially please your child if you perform it with the whole family 2 times a week.
Another way of hardening – sunbathing. Formerly, sun and air baths were widely used for hardening children.
