People have always looked for ways to eat healthier and use products that don’t use harmful chemicals. In more recent years, clean living has gained popularity due to the growing number of diseases parents are seeing their children face. More parents are gaining consciousness of what toxins they’re feeding and showering their babies with, and replacing their personal care products and foods with green products like organic veggies and fruits.
If you’re looking for direction on clean living for your kids, you’ve come to the right blog post. As you read, take note of the things you can implement today with your children and family. These tips are meant to help you decide on the best ways to incorporate a greener and healthier lifestyle as you raise your children. Without further ado, here are some secrets to clean living with kids.
Educate your kids about clean living.
The first step to bringing your kids into a healthier lifestyle is to teach them about it. As you already know, kids are like sponges—according to this free PMC article, they absorb everything they hear and see. So with that in mind, you can prepare visuals to teach your child about the reasons why we should live this lifestyle. You know your child better than anyone, so you know the best way they will learn about clean eating and living.
You can show them the pros and cons of healthy living with movies or images, and explain to them how their future self will thank them for beginning this toxin-free lifestyle early in their childhood. As they learn, so will you. You can include them in this process by asking them for ideas on what ideas or recipes they would like to try out and give them options to choose from so they can develop mindful and independent behaviors.
Prepare your home for clean living.
Once you have explained to your family that you’ll be going on a green journey, it’s time you prepare your home for a cleaner lifestyle. You can start by changing any toxic cleaning products you use in your home. For example, choose products that are made with harmless and organic ingredients and that are free of pesticides, parabens, herbicides, and other toxic chemicals. This PDF guide shows you different cleaning products you can make from scratch by using natural ingredients free of harmful chemicals.
You should shop for organic and vegan cleaning products free from harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde, parabens, and herbicides. Products like Grove Co.’s concentrated cleaners for tiles, wood floors, tiles, and glass are made from 92% plant-based solvents and are packaged in recyclable glass containers. Additionally, for your laundry needs, you can look into purchasing laundry starter kits by Common Good, which include plant-based detergents, reusable bottles, and wool dryer balls.
Incorporate more organic veggies and fruits into their diets.
We all know kids can be picky eaters, especially when it comes to veggies. They can see a bowl of veggies a mile away and reject it with ease. It’s important that as a parent you help your children navigate through their interests and dislikes so they can grow into conscious and decisive adults. This includes cooking the right meals for proper nutrition and a clean-eating life, and even steering away from processed meats, as they may contain toxic levels of hormones, herbicides, and parabens. If you do choose to buy meat, make sure that it’s grass-fed and free of toxic additives, like hormones. According to this ePub, insufficient amounts of fruits and veggies can hinder your child’s learning capabilities.
If your child grows up eating instant meals, sugary drinks, and toxic food, they can develop illnesses and health conditions like obesity, diabetes, and even cancer. Try finding clean eating recipes your children and the rest of the family will love for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even snacks. You can prepare healthy recipes with organic fruits and veggies like overnight blueberry oats, zucchini noodles, peanut butter protein bars, and chocolate hazelnut smoothies. You can even hide vegetables, like kale or spinach, in smoothies for extra nutritional awareness.
Steer clear of processed foods and vegetable oils.
Processed foods are filled with toxins like refined vegetable oils, Bisphenol-A (BPA) found in canned infant formulas, trans fats, and added sugars. They can also contain hormones and parabens which can greatly affect your immunity. One unexpected culprit to avoid for better clean eating is Cassia cinnamon. This type of cinnamon comes from China and contains high levels of the toxin coumarin which, if ingested in excess, can cause cancer and liver damage. If you still want to enjoy cinnamon, try going for the Ceylon alternative, which can be a bit pricier. The health benefits make up for it, though.
Likewise, it’s best to look carefully when choosing vegetable oils as the toxins present can increase inflammation and the risk of heart disease and certain cancers. Moreover, the fumes generated by vegetable oils contain formaldehyde, a toxic solvent. Additionally, this epub shows that ingesting too much omega-6 from vegetable oils can have a negative impact on your lifestyle. As this free PMC article (PMID: 31902132) indicates, your intervention in your child’s diet can have a great impact on your child’s health. Safer oils are organically sourced coconut oil, grapeseed oil, or olive oil. Even grass-fed butter is better and far less toxic than most vegetable oils.
Plan your weekly menu.
Your menu can vary from week to week and can have a tremendous impact on your child’s health. You want to give them an organic and balanced menu throughout the week so they can ingest all their necessary nutrients to boost their immunity. For this, you can include fun themes like Taco Tuesdays or plant-based Meatloaf Monday.
The idea here is to get your kids excited to eat a healthy meal. Sometimes, they don’t even need to know the ingredients in their foods (you don’t want to throw them off their groove), but other times you can even include them in the cooking process. This will help them develop cognitive skills and a healthy habit of cooking clean meals for their benefit. You can begin by reviewing this 21-day clean eating meals PDF.
Remove added sugars from their menu.
Added sugars are toxic to your child’s immunity. If consumed in excess, your child’s insulin levels will spike, thus suppressing their immunity. Consuming too much sugar can also lead your child to develop diabetes and obesity. When clean eating, it’s important to substitute these toxic added sugars with natural sweeteners.
For example, you can use organic maple syrup, vegan molasses, and monkfruit sweeteners instead. Organic sweeteners can easily be incorporated into your baking goods and beverages like you would with any sugar, guaranteeing tasty treats for your kids and much cleaner health for your family. Additionally, be sure to use sweeteners free from toxins like certain dyes that can increase cytotoxicity in your child’s body, as established in this free PMC article.
Prepare them your own snacks and lunch boxes.
Along the same lines of organic sweeteners, you can also manually prepare your child’s snacks instead of buying pre-made ones to live a greener and cleaner life. Pre-made snacks can be high in sodium, added sugars, toxins, and can even include BPA or other harmful chemicals in their packaging, which can affect your child’s fertility in their adulthood according to this free PMC article epub. When they head out to school, you may want to include snacks like protein bars made with turmeric, bananas, and peanuts, among other organic ingredients.
Additionally, you can prepare clean, meat-free, protein-packed lunches for your kids like avocado sandwiches, vegan spinach grilled cheese quesadillas, bagel pizzas, and chickpea burritos. You can store these with sustainable plastic wrap alternatives like reusable bags made from non-toxic cotton, soy wax, and coconut oil.
Plan fun activities away from digital devices.
Living a cleaner life doesn’t only constitute your child’s diet, but their daily activities as well. Kids need entertainment, and with a busy life, parents can forget to set time apart with their children for some fun time. They can resort to leaving their child to watch TV or play video games like Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories so they can focus on their work or house duties.
Although your child may want to become Riku, Kairi, or Sora from Kingdom Hearts, they need to take some time away from their video games to participate in more clean and engaging activities. It’d be ideal to set a timer for an hour whenever you hear the Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories theme song (Simple and Clean by Japanese superstar Hikaru Utada). When that hour is over, your child should take a break to go outside and engage in more stimulating activities. Such patterns, where children are intensely focused on their screens for a prolonged time, can create toxic patterns in their lives—Sora from Kingdom Hearts can wait. This free PMC article can help you understand the effects of screen time in children and adolescents.
However, for a more mindful lifestyle, it’s important to teach your kids about fun things they can do out in nature and apart from their digital devices. You can take your kids on a walk in the forest where they can breathe fresh air free of herbicides and toxic chemicals. Take them for a swim at the beach or lake, play board games, or have them actively help you with chores. These things will help your child awaken their sense of adventure and diligence and will help them become fun yet responsible adults.
Include your pet in the green journey.
If you have pets, you know how much kids enjoy being in their company and playing with them. Children can learn to take care of other beings like their animals and can develop a sense of preoccupation with their furry friends. They don’t want their best four-legged friends to get sick with toxic toys or food filled with herbicides and hormones.
Children want the best for their pets. It’s up to you as their parent to show them how different types of green products can keep their buddies healthy for longevity. This way, you can indirectly teach your children to take care of themselves as they too want to live a longer and healthier life if only they eat cleaner foods and toxin-free products. You can start by reading this medical epub that explains common practices for plant-based diets for your pets.
Use green products for hygiene.
Moreover, you can incorporate clean hygiene practices for your children with green personal care products. Although these products can cost more than toxic products, they will benefit your children’s health for life. Clean products like organic hair and body wash free from toxic chemicals and parabens help keep your child’s skin and hair healthy and free from rashes or illnesses. You also want to protect your child from the sun’s damaging rays with organic sunscreen creams free of parabens, formaldehyde, and other toxins that are harmful to your child and the environment.
This blog post is meant to help you understand some of the ways you can incorporate clean habits and nutrition into your children’s life. Ultimately, you know what is best for your children, so you get to choose which of these things will work best for them.
