(StatePoint) A new school year brings with it fresh opportunity, excitement, and, sometimes, anxiety for parents and students. Medical experts say that addressing health-related issues can help make for a stress-free back-to-school season. “Opening the lines of communication with your child and their physician to talk about nutrition, physical activity, and the steps you can take together to have a healthy and rewarding school year can help ease some of those back-to-school jitters you may be feeling,” says Bruce A.
Scott, MD, president of the American Medical Association (AMA). For a healthy and successful school year, follow these doctor-approved tips from the AMA: Annual physicals. Visit your child’s physician every year.
Annual physicals are critical to ensuring children are growing and developing properly. Talk to your child’s pediatrician about vaccines. For the U.
S. population in 2019, childhood vaccines prevented more than 24 million illnesses. Vaccines are safe, effective and save lives.
Routine childhood immunization is highly effective at preventing disease over a lifetime, reducing the incidence of all targeted diseases, including measles, mumps, rubella, polio and varicella (chickenpox). And if your child turns 11 or 12 this year, it’s time to get the HPV vaccine, which protects against the HPV virus – a virus linked to six types of cancer. Be conscientious about what your child eats at school.
Healthy students are better learners. School meals should.