Healthy Routines
By balancing a healthy diet and physical activity with a healthy sleep routine, you and your family can reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases. Working towards a healthy routine as a family can promote lifelong health habits that will help to build and maintain a healthy body and mind.
Healthy routines:
- Help friends and family spend more time together.
- Build children’s confidence, knowledge and skills.
- Enhance children’s ability to learn.
Check out the Creating Healthy Routines resource for more ideas!
- Aim for snacks to have foods from at least 2 of the 4 food groups.
- Aim for meals to have foods from at least 3 of the 4 food groups.
- Try to have at least 1 vegetable or fruit at every meal and snack.
- Avoid meals and snacks high in sugar, fat and salt.
- Eat meals together as a family with no screens; encourage everyone to talk about their day as this helps to build strong family bonds.
Make meal time family time!
Role model making healthy choices!
- Choose water more often to quench your thirst.
- Make water the easy choice for the entire family (e.g. have a cold pitcher of tap water available in your fridge, or try adding fruit to water to change up the flavour).
- Carry a refillable water bottle.
- Children under 2 years - screen time is not recommended.
- Children aged 2-4 years – limit screen time to less than 1 hour per day; less is better.
- Children and youth aged 5-17 years – limit recreational screen time to less than 2 hours per day; less is better.
Spend less time sitting!
Be active and play together as a family!
- Children aged 3-4 years need at least 180 minutes (3 hours) of physical activity at any intensity spread throughout the day.
- Children and youth aged 5-17 years need at least 60 minutes (1 hour) of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day.
- Practice basic movement skills like throwing, running and jumping with your child.
- Encourage walking, cycling, or wheeling to school, the store or the park.
- Children aged 3-4 years need 10-13 hours of sleep.
- Children aged 5-13 years need 9-11 hours of sleep.
- Youth aged 14-17 years need 8 -10 hours of sleep.
- Keep TVs, video games and computers out of your child’s bedroom. Screens can make it harder to fall and stay asleep.
Try to have the same bed and wake-up time every day!
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