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

Oh no… he knows how to climb a chair (A year and 8 months old)

I don’t know whether to celebrate or to call it a disaster. Last Friday he just did it-- he climbed a chair and smiled broadly as if it is his victory. As if he had climbed the highest mountain in the whole world. I’m happy that he learned something new but then it is a disaster when he can now grab everything that is on the table. Batteries, multi vitamins, receipts, medications, mugs and tissue paper are all loosely scattered around the table will now have to be kept within his reach. He especially liked to play with the wireless mouse, imitating his parents when they are clicking the mouse surfing the net.


His victory means that I have to be extra cautious as not to let him accidentally fall off a chair or get hold of something that could be dangerous to him. He could poison himself if he accidentally taken his father’s pills or hurt himself if he broke a mug. Everything has to be child proof.

Fun with books and magazines

A month ago I picked up two Ladybird books from my parents house so that I can read to my son. I use to read them when I was young and they were there for more than 25 years already. Books are the things that were left in my old room because we use to move around a lot and most of my toys were given away.

I love children books because they are full of color illustrations and it reminds of my young and carefree life. I also have a queer habit of smelling brand new books, they just hike up my curiosity to read the contents of the book.

So, the titles that I brought back are “The Big Pancake” and “Lady and the Tramp”. The first time I read to my son, he just listens intently but after that he got impatient when I am halfway reading to him. So I change my strategy. I start to tell the story briefly in my own words and point the pictures as I go along and he is able to follow me.

I find that books like “Peekaboo” is well liked by my son because we are able to interact with each other more and he learns fast through this book. As you can see the book has lots of words given in the pictures.

 So, we treat it as a fun game. I throw him a few questions such as where the elephant, clouds, sun are and he is able to point to the pictures. Bring me smiles whenever he did it.

Women magazines, National Geographic magazines and any other magazines are just as fun too because they contain realistic quality pictures and it is easy for my son to learn about things in the world. So again I’m back with the “point and guess what” method. Whether it’s a bag, shoes, trees, zebra or monkey, somebody walking or a smile, they are all fun. My bubbly baby just babbles nonstop as if he is having a real conversation with me and I just play along as if I understand what he says.