Health Tips for Students Getting Ready for Year Ahead

Don’t let the kids know, but school is right around the corner, and it’s a great time to get a head start on ensuring your child has a healthy school year. Taking a proactive approach to healthcare is always a good thing, especially for your children.

We always want them to be in the best mental and physical health, especially when tasked with the day-to-day demands of school. Here are some health tips to consider for your child at the start and during the school year.

Health Tips for Students Starts with Doctor’s Appointments

It is imperative to stay on top of your child’s annual doctor’s visits for so many reasons:

Wellness Checkups

Overall wellness checkups and ensuring immunizations are up to date.

Specialists

If you see any specialists regularly, schedule a checkup and make an action plan together for the year ahead.

Sports Injuries / Preparedness

For first-time or returning athletes, visit the doctor to ensure they have healed from prior injuries and are ready for the physical demands of their chosen sport.

Consider an Allergist

Manage and plan for allergies. They seem to be getting increasingly common every season and can be really uncomfortable for kids sitting in a classroom and almost present with cold-like symptoms, if not worse.

Discussing and Understanding Developmental Changes

For children approaching a certain age of development, it’s a good idea to have specific conversations with their doctor and you to help prepare them for the changes to come.

Make an appointment at any of our Harmony Healthcare Long Island locations to discuss these or other medical issues today.

Mental Health Check-Ups Are Just as Important

Professional Mental Health Care

Children have so much pressure, unknowns, and social anxieties to negotiate. Whether your child sees someone professionally on a regular or occasional basis, now is the time to make an appointment to focus on the year ahead. Therapy takes time, patience, and dedication but provides children the tools they need to work through tough times and achieve their goals when necessary.

Parental Engagement

Professional therapy is not needed for everyone, nor is it the only way to check in on your child’s mental health. Take some time to check in with your kids and talk through any of their anxieties or concerns about what’s to come from entering a new grade, new classmates, and the new year ahead. Then, when you are engaged in their day-to-day school life, you can support and reinforce what they learn and are responsible for from a position of knowledge.

Keep the Conversations Going

Try taking them somewhere out of the ordinary routine and scenery. Take a car ride to a short, fun destination that doesn’t have too many distractions. Ask a few questions about how school is going that require more than a yes or no answer.

Also, remember that kids love hearing relatable stories about life lessons you learned while growing up. Go with some lighthearted ones, where the consequences weren’t too significant, yet it still involves a lesson. It may spark some sharing on their end too.

Most importantly, do more listening than talking and leave the cell phones in the car.

Do Your Best to Control the Controllable

At the same time, realize that you can’t control everything in your child’s life; all you can do is prepare as best as possible. One of the best health tips for students is to remind them about their decisions and how they can affect their lives. Proper nutrition, exercise, and studying habits will benefit them while also making them aware of the pitfalls of succumbing to temptations and pressures.

Get them started on a healthy first step, and they will have an advantage heading into their school year.

You are eligible for our school-based health center services if you are a registered high school student at one of our affiliated high schools.