Dear parents:

Shanghai has recently embraced the first snow of this winter, when children are vulnerable to all kinds of diseases. We should never neglect health care in winter, so let’s start today’s lecture!

How to judge whether your kids feel cold or not?

I have an easy way to share.  You should use your  hand to touch children’s neck under their covers: warm necks mean they do not feel too warm or too cold. If the neck is cold, the child  needs to dress more. If the neck is sweaty, it means the child dresses too much. But remember not to touch kids’ neck outside of their clothing. Each day is colder than the last. How should we dress children?

Dress code is that the ideal temperature after children putting on cloth is 26℃. So they are not cold enough to sneeze or hot enough to sweat. Each piece of clothing will add to the temperature: a thick feather coat adds 9℃; a thin feather coat 6℃; a very thin coat 5℃; a thick sweater 4℃; a cotton vest 4℃; a velvet cloth 3℃; a thin coat 3℃; a thick cotton sweater 2℃; a thin cotton sweater 1℃. 

When it is 26℃, wearing one T-shirt is perfect. Based on this, if the temperature decreases by 3℃, it is ok to put on one thin coat, and so forth and so on.

However, it differs from kid to kid from the perspective of Chinese medicine because children with different constitutions need different treatment. For example, if a baby’s constitution is weak, which means it will easily catch a cold or get a fever, parents should not dress it in too much cloth. Likewise, a healthier baby just needs to dress similarly to an adult.

Winter is the season of contagious diseases. Children’s immune system is relatively weak. Aside from clothing, what else should we do to protect our kids?

1 Maintain airflow in the room

When it is sunny, make sure every morning and evening you open the windows twice a day for 30 minutes or so. Main airflow in the room to decrease air-borne germs.  For children who are inside for a long period of time, especially if the air conditioner or heat is on, it is not good for the air to not circulate. 

2 More sun exposure

Children’s immune system improves when they do more physical activities. When they do out-door exercise, they can be regularly exposed to the winter cold, which can improve the body’s ability to resist diseases like the cold and respiratory diseases. UV rays can kill germs and bacteria on the body, helping children absorb calcium and phosphorus to improve ability to fight diseases.

3 Preventing skin dryness and allergy

Wearing clothing which has been set aside for a long time may lead to allergies,  rashes, itchy skin and so forth. Our suggestion is that after taking the clothing out from storage, you wash them and sundry them to eliminate allergy-causing factors. Winter is cold and dry, so kids’ skin easily drys out and becomes itchy. After washing face, children need to smear their face and hands  with moistening lotion, which can help ease the dryness. Use cold water to wash their face and hands to increase their endurance.