Why sunshine is good for our children?

We often hear nursery rhymes, children songs and animations telling us that the sunshine makes everyone happy and bright. We also hear the old saying that our children need to go out and get some sunshine. But had it occur to you what makes sunshine so good for our children?


When the sun came in contact with our skin, our body is able to produce more vitamin D. Vitamin D helps in the absorption of calcium in our body thereby giving us strong and healthy bones. Deficiency in vitamin D will cause rickets in children and osteoporosis in adults. According to James Dowd, professor of medicine at Michigan State University and author of The Vitamin D Cure found that vitamin D in our body will only activate itself when it gets ultraviolet B rays from sunlight. This means that vitamin D will not serve its purpose when it is without sunlight.

Breastfeeding children are at risk of having rickets because of the lack of vitamin D in the breast milk. Thus, these children should take foods or supplements with vitamin D.

Today’s modern culture has encouraged children to engage in unhealthy activities such as staying indoors watching TV, playing computer games, no outdoor activity and thus lack of sun exposure. These unhealthy habits give rise to children contracting rickets disease, bones disorder, diabetes and other diseases.

Apart from building strong bones, the sun also helps in the production of white blood cells to build a strong immune system to our body. A strong immune system is important to fight against germs, bacteria, viruses and toxins.

Through the warmth of the sun it stimulates blood circulation throughout our body and driving more oxygen into our body.

The sun makes people happy or in a good mood because it stimulates the production of serotonin. Serotonin is a type of hormone found in the human brain. It helps to regulate our mood, relieve depression and give us a goodnight sleep.

The other benefit of sun exposure is that it stimulates our liver and helps in breaking down toxins. This will greatly benefit newborns because newborns have weak liver and that makes them susceptible to jaundice. By having sun exposure for a few minutes a day will prevent the occurrence of jaundice.
Having sun exposure will also help with any kinds of skin disorder such as eczema, acne and cradle cap.

Although there is so much goodness in receiving sunshine, however experts only recommend that a good sun exposure of 10 to 15 minutes a day between 8am to 9.30am and the hours after 4pm. It is also recommended not to use sunscreen while receiving the benefit of the sun. Exposing too much on the sun will risk us getting skin cancer and thus it is good to wear sunscreen after the recommended time.





Tags: Benefits of sun, sunshine, sun health, strong bones, heal skin disease, prevent osteoporosis,rickets, moods, vitamin D