Sleep Better Check-List

Are your kids getting enough QUALITY sleep?

Kids need between 9 - 12 hours of sleep depending on their age. But it’s not just the amount of sleep that matters. Deep, restorative sleep is critical for stress-management, emotional wellbeing, detoxing your body, sufficient energy, and even weight management.

Implement the following sleep-better checklist to make sure your child gets a good night’s sleep and wakes up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day with a good mood!

Did you know? Better sleep is one of the MOST COMMON improvement parents report once their kids are under chiropractic care?

Here’s why: Our nervous system operates like a gas vs brake pedal. If your brain 🧠 is stuck on the gas pedal, and your brakes give out, how can you slow down or stop your moving vehicle 🚗 (your body)? Your brain is moving at a 100 miles per hour, so it’s no wonder you can’t relax enough to fall asleep. Your mind is racing…literally!Chiropractic care activates your body’s braking mechanisms (parasympathetics) to slow down and CALM your brain. It helps shift your body into a relaxed state. The vagus nerve (activated through adjustments) plays a vital role in your ability to calm your body, gut, and mind so you can get RESORATITVE sleep.

Food Matters: What to Eat to Boost Your Child’s Energy, Focus, and Performance

What we feed our kids (and ourselves) has a HUGE impact on their mood, energy, concentration, and performance in school and athletics. Food has the power to make us feel tired, sluggish, hyper, and anxious OR it can make us feel energetic, focused, motivated, and happy.

Which scenario would you rather have for your children?

Food makes up the building blocks of our cells, so if the food we ingest is made of processed starches, sugar, or refined oils, our cellular health suffers, which means all the other organs systems in our body don’t work as well as they should.

If you want your kids to have long-lasting energy, a focused brain, a good mood, and fewer sick days, you have to NOURISH their body and brain with REAL FOOD, the way God made it. Whole foods, in their original form, are designed to provide our cells, organs, and muscles with what they need to be strong and healthy.

What follows are several resources to help limit chemical stress on the nervous system, protect the health of your child’s cells and immune system, and assure their growing brains and bodies are getting the nourishment they need to be healthy, happy, adaptable kids.

Food Ingredients to Eliminate: Added sugar, refined oils (vegetable, canola, soybean, safflower, peanut, and corn oil), processed flours and starches, artificial food dyes, artificial flavorings, most preservatives, juice, pop and other sweetened beverages, and artificial sweeteners. Click here to learn WHY these food ingredients should be limited.

The bottom line: Garbage in = garbage out. You can’t expect your child to behave well, focus in school or have sustained energy if they’re hyped up on sugar, processed carbs, toxic oils and food additives.

Follow the links below for more information on how to shop for clean brands and properly fuel your family’s body for optimal health and vitality:

1. Healthy Food Swaps: Replace sugar, refined oils, and artificial sweeteners with these options (Restore Chiro Article)

2. How Food Impacts Energy, Brain Fog, and Metabolism (The Ancient Health Podcast)

3. Clean Snack Options from Costco + How to Read Ingredient Labels (YouTube video)

4. Healthy Recipes + FREE Weekly Meal Plans (Fed + Fit website)

5. 50 Healthy Packable Lunch Ideas for Kids (Super Healthy Kids website)

Backpack Guide to Protect the Spine and Nervous System

Did you know that 10 to 13-year-olds carry, on average, 25.3 pounds in their backpack! That’s almost 3X the recommended load on their growing spines!

A poorly-fit or heavy backpack can put un-due stress on a child’s spine and nervous system, creating nerve interference ⚡and potential dysfunction in other organ systems. We want your child to have optimal posture and a well-functioning nervous system so they can perform BETTER in school and sports, and ADAPT well to stress and their environment.

Here are 3 things you should know when wearing a backpack🎒:

1. Make sure the size of the backpack is no larger than their torso. Tighten the straps so the bottom of the bag doesn’t hang lower than their hips.

2. Always wear both straps at the same time (no single-shoulder wearing).

3. Keep the backpack as light as possible. Keep heavy books in a locker, use a tablet or e-book, or have them carry their lunch box (rather than put in their backpack) to lighten the load.

Give Their Nervous System a Tune-Up!

Just like you take your kids to the pediatrician for a physical, the eye doctor to make sure they can see properly, the dentist to maintain oral health and check for cavities, and the local super-store to get all their back-to-school supplies, it’s equally important to make sure their nervous system is functioning at it’s peak.

The nervous system is the master control center for all communication between the brain, nerves, muscles, and organ systems within the body. If subluxation (nerve interference) is present, they won’t be able to focus, learn, heal, and perform as well in life - no matter how hard they try!

Parents with kids under regular chiropractic care report the following benefits:

1. Better focus and grades

2. Improved sleep

3. Better mood and emotional regulation

4. Fewer sick days

5. Improved nervous system functioning and posture

If you’d like to know WHY neurologically-focused chiropractic helps with the above benefits, click the button below.