GOSH General Health Advice PDF

General Health Advice This leaflet has important advice to help you and your family lead an active and healthy lifestyle. You can also access further information on the GOSH website General health advice | Great Ormond Street Hospital (gosh.nhs.uk) Food and Diet Providing a good and balanced diet...

General Health Advice This leaflet has important advice to help you and your family lead an active and healthy lifestyle. You can also access further information on the GOSH website General health advice | Great Ormond Street Hospital (gosh.nhs.uk) Food and Diet Providing a good and balanced diet to your Planning meals in advance can be helpful and children is essential to helping them grow up batch cooking can also be useful in busy household. You may also find the Eat Well plate strong and healthy. We should all be eating at for suggestions of what proportion of each food least five pieces of fruit and vegetables a day group you should eat at each main meal. as part of a healthy lifestyle. Eating a wide variety of fruit and vegetables can help you to You can find more information at: Eat smart | get the most from your five portions. Great Ormond Street Hospital (gosh.nhs.uk) More information can be found at 5 A Day - NHS (www.nhs.uk) Getting active Food labelling can be confusing but there has It does everyone good to be as active as been lots of work to make this simpler. You will possible – moving about keeps our body often see food labels using the traffic light system. The green traffic lights indicate low salt, fat and healthy, especially our heart, lungs and sugar. You can have some food with traffic light bones, as well as our mind. If your child has labelling as long as it doesn’t make up the majority additional needs, it can be hard to think about of your diet. what sport and exercise they can do but there are lots of options for accessible sport, exercise and activity. Building movement into everyday activities is good for everyone. Activity helps our heart, lungs and bones stay strong but also helps our mental wellbeing as well. It can help with our sleeping and make us feel happier. Solo activities are helpful but team activities with other people can help build a common purpose and encourage working together and socialising. Ref: © GOSH NHS Foundation Trust, April 2022 Page 1 of 5 What does your child like doing? It doesn’t have to be competitive It’s a good first step to Competition can be good for challenging yourself start thinking about the against someone else, but it can also be things that interest your disheartening. Try to child. Are there particular encourage self-improvement – books they enjoy, that is, setting goals to reach – programmes they watch a rather than competition with lot or things they like to brothers, sisters or others. If make. This should give you do want to build in a you a few ideas of things competitive element, you may to try. have to adapt targets to give everyone a fair chance Adapt and adapt some more regardless of their age or ability. There are few activities that can’t be adapted to Do things as a family meet someone’s specific needs. There are often wheelchair versions of sports, specialist There are plenty of options for family activities that equipment to make something easier or other are suitable for all ages and abilities. See if there ways to tweak an activity to suit your child. is something that all your children will enjoy – if they are all in the same place at the same time, For example, instead of golf or football, this will make organising easier. your child could try to throw a beanbag towards a target. If they enjoy this, you For example, lots of swimming pools do could look for a boccia club nearby. mixed ability sessions with plenty of aids and floats so everyone can join and play Try different things whatever their ability. It can take some time to find an activity that suits See what activities are available your child – we all remember some sports from school we enjoyed less than others. Find various locally options for your child – you don’t need to spend There are lots of websites you can search to find money on them at the start, so see what you can activities close to home but your local public do for free before you commit yourself. library can be helpful too. They usually keep directories of local activities and clubs so can It doesn’t have to be all in one go point you towards some. Talk to your local team Although children and young people are advised too – they will know which local activities their to be active for 60 minutes each day, they can other patients have enjoyed. split this into shorter chunks throughout the day if that’s more manageable. Some mobile phone Build activity into everyday life apps show active minutes or you could just make As well as taking part in organised activities, see a note of how long your child spends being active how you can build keeping active into everyday each day. life too. Ref: © GOSH NHS Foundation Trust, April 2022 Page 2 of 5 Could you get to school without a car one activity and follow the rules, there are ways to or two days a week for instance? include everyone in being active. Splashing about at bath time can be fun as well as exercising muscles. Put on some music and move about – it doesn’t Please remember matter if you look silly, your child will probably prefer it if you do. Keeping active doesn’t always mean playing sports or going to the gym. Look online for suggestions for Any activity that gets you moving, raises exercises at home your heartbeat, makes you a bit sweaty or out of puff is a good thing. There are plenty of websites that have exercise We should all aim for 60 minutes each day routines for all abilities and ages that you can being active, but you can split this into easily do at home with no or very little special shorter chunks if this is more manageable. equipment. Have a look at the list at the end of Find an activity that your child enjoys – it’s this information sheet for suggestions. always harder to make yourself do Rather than using weights to lift, why not something that you don’t enjoy. fill a bottle with water instead? You could Use activity as ‘family time’ that you can also use a tin of beans if you can hold it spend together. Schedule in your diary and with your hands. stick to it! It doesn’t matter what you look like or Don’t stop your child doing things whether you are any good – being active for fear they’ll hurt themselves and having fun are the most important things. Of course you are bound to worry when your child does things you might think are dangerous or You can find more information at: Exercise risky. However, so long as you follow your centre | Great Ormond Street Hospital doctors’ advice, use any safety equipment for the (gosh.nhs.uk) Further information and support Talk to your doctor, nurse, physio or occupational therapist for ideas to get your child moving. They can advise you about any safety concerns or specialised aids your child may need. Change 4 Life has lots of ideas for activities, many of which are adaptable for all abilities and ages, on their website at www.nhs.uk/change4life/activities/accessible-activities. Mencap Sport have various pages about sport, exercise and activity for people with learning disabilities – visit their website at www.mencap.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/mencap-sport for further details. We Are Undefeatable encourages anyone with a long-term health condition to get active. There are lots more ideas on their website at weareundefeatable.co.uk/ways-to-move as well as information on activity for mental as well as physical health. Ref: © GOSH NHS Foundation Trust, April 2022 Page 3 of 5 Access Sport is working to increase the number of people with additional needs taking part in sport – see their website at www.accesssport.org.uk for details. There are plenty of online video exercise programmes as well as low or no cost ideas for activities. Get Yourself Active is a programme run by Disability Rights UK and Sport England to encourage activity if you have additional needs. More details are at www.disabilityrightsuk.org/how-we-can-help/get-yourself- active. Activity Alliance is a charity that aims to increase activity levels for everyone with additional needs. Have a look at their website at www.activityalliance.org.uk/ British Blind Sport is an organisation that encourages anyone with a visual impairment to get active and take part in sports. See their website at britishblindsport.org.uk/ for further details. Keeping active Keeping active is good for your body. It can make us feel happy too. You can adapt lots of activities so you can do them – give it a try. Try lots of different things until you find something you enjoy. Try to be active for 60 minutes each day, but you can do it in short chunks. Set challenges for yourself rather than against other people. Think about fun activities you can do with your family. Ref: © GOSH NHS Foundation Trust, April 2022 Page 4 of 5  Eat a healthy balanced diet with not too much fat or sugar. Use equipment to protect yourself if you need to – it is important to keep safe. The most important things are to get moving and have fun! Ref: © GOSH NHS Foundation Trust, April 2022 Page 5 of 5