OUTDOOR GAMES

Dear readers.

Our new series ‘Infant Nutrition,’ which has received great interest from you, concludes with its 5th and final week. Last week, we discussed vitamin D and its importance in development through external feeding. This week, at your request, we’re covering iron deficiency, a common problem in infants and young children, and the importance of fresh air for related medical issues.

First of all, let’s state that ‘iron’ is a mineral that enables oxygen transfer in the body. As most of you know, our bodies use iron to produce hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is a respiratory pigment found in red blood cells (erythrocytes) responsible for carrying oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. In short, if your baby doesn’t have enough iron in their body, the amount of oxygen, which is vital for organs and tissues, decreases. Your baby may experience delays in speech and walking, as well as attention deficit and irritability.

Depending on the severity of the iron deficiency, your doctor will revise your baby’s feeding regimen and provide medication and treatment. However, you also have an important role to play. You should encourage your children to play outdoors to ensure better oxygen uptake in their tissues – in other words, to leave them where they should be, in harmony with nature. Because children’s bodies, and especially their brain tissues, require much more oxygen than adults’.

While our cities have dozens of playgrounds right by the sea or surrounded by nature, I unfortunately cannot understand the medical reason why tiny babies and children are forced to roam in enclosed spaces loaded with thousands of volts of electricity and radiation on weekends.

Children playing outdoors benefit naturally and directly from oxygen. Outdoor activities allow children to express themselves as a whole. Don’t forget this. I would also like to remind you that these types of benefits enable the functioning of many critical hormones that are very beneficial for your children.

WEEKLY AWARENESS NOTE

Your baby desperately needs natural sources of oxygen until at least the age of one. Resistance and walking exercises in parks, throwing objects, climbing, crawling, and jumping will help develop the muscles necessary for your child’s fine and gross motor skills. Children find opportunities to develop their large muscles in the open air. Appropriately sized ramps and steps are explored to help them acquire new skills. Low slides, small climbing structures, and swings are the areas where skills develop most effectively. In this way, your child naturally learns concepts such as balance, weight, and volume. With ample oxygen transfer, systems such as respiration, circulation, digestion, and excretion function regularly.

Furthermore, babies and children who play outdoors sleep much better than other children. Quality sleep ensures more effective secretion of growth hormone (GH), which is vital for babies. Introducing your child to nature whenever possible will provide far greater benefits than exposing them to radiation and technology.

Uğur Uğural