As your child learns to care for himself, he begins to take responsibility for his own health and well being.

When he learns to eat healthy snacks, bathe himself, and even blow his own nose, he initiates acts of independence that can establish a healthy lifestyle.  So there is value in pausing now for sixty seconds or so to think about what self-care skills your child has learned and needs to learn.  

The skills listed below build during your child’s preschool years.  They develop in small steps with a lot of coaching and practice.  Sometimes it can be tempting to just keep taking care of your child’s teeth and hair combing because it doesn’t get done “right” unless you do it yourself.  However, it is important to remember that you are your child’s first teacher with the goal of imparting a life-long set of abilities and values to your child.  Early on, you will share the responsibility for most of these skills with your child; but, ultimately, you will want your kindergartner headed off to school self-sufficient in most of these areas.  

Nutrition: Eating, Snacking, and Drinking

• Give a simple kid-friendly reason why feeding yourself and making good food choices is important.  There’s no need to go into vitamins and carbohydrates. You could say something like, “Eating good food keeps you strong,” or “Good food helps your eyes and your nose work,” or “When you eat good food, you have lots of power in your body.”
• Consider keeping a plastic container in the refrigerator with healthy snacks for your child to choose from.  You can take it out and let her make a choice without overwhelming her with choices or leaving the refrigerator door open.  A non-refrigerated drawer with healthy snack options is good too.

Grooming: Bathing, Brushing teeth, and Combing hair

• Give a simple kid-friendly reason why keeping a neat appearance is important. Avoid giving a judgmental reason like, “People who don’t take a bath everyday are nasty.”  You could say something like, “Being clean feels great,” or “Your teeth can hurt if they stay dirty too long,” or “Neat hair makes you look nice.”
• Around four and five, start giving your child specific bathing instructions.  Emphasizing starting at the top of her head and working your way down.  This is to make sure that a she does not wash her body and then her face—which could spread bacteria into her system.

Health Prevention: Toileting, Blowing nose, and Washing hands

• Give a simple reasons how good habits can keep you from getting sick.  You could say, “The toilet is the clean place to put pee-pee and poop,” or “Using a tissue keeps you healthy,” or “Washing your hands rinses germs away.”
• If your child starts a nose-picking habit, diligently have him wash his hands every time you see him pick.  The interruption from what he is doing is a logical consequence for an unhealthy behavior and reinforces that hand washing is health prevention.  This should interrupt the behavior and stop a cold from spreading.

Remember that your child internalizes your values largely through observation.  So take a moment to think about what you believe, do, and say regarding healthy eating and exercise.  What can you start doing to model how to maintain health, prevent illness, and promote well being?

Reference: Lasky, P.A., & Eichelberger, K.M. (1985). “Health-related views and self-care behaviors of young children.” Family Relations, 34 (1), 13-18.

These great tips and more are from the highly acclaimed book The Triumphant Child - A practical guide to raising 2, 3 and year olds.