Teaching Good Eating Habits to Children

Love and good food bring out the best in a child. Providing a nurturing environment, loving nourishment, and wholesome food are fundamental for your child to be healthy, happy, “wholly”, AND as smart as possible.

Eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, protein along with avoiding overly processed, refined, and chemically laden foods will enhance your child's intellectual, physical, emotional, and mental development.

How to balance your Kapha dosha child

Our Kapha children are blessed with a strong, healthy, well-developed body. They tend to have strong muscles and larger-than average, heavy bones. Because their larger frames are dominated by earth and water, they tend to gain weight and have difficulty taking it off.

Kaphas also tend to be blessed with a sweet loving disposition, with a stable solidity to them.

How to balance your Pitta Dosha Child

The child with a Pitta body type is of medium build and height, with coppery skin and possibly reddish hair. Moles and freckles are common on Pitta skin, which also tends to be oily and warm.

Pitta children tend to have an average body temperature that is higher than that of other children, so they can feel quite warm while others feel cold. They have a low tolerance for hot weather, sunshine or hard physical work. The summer is the most challenging time for them, so this is the time when extra care should be taken.

How to balance a Vatta dosha child

Vata children have light flexible bodies, so they tend to be slim or underweight. There delicate skin tends to be easily dry, rough or extra sensitive to soaps or other products. You may find your Vata child has cold hands and feet due to poor circulation. Vata children have variable appetites and thirst as well as variable digestive strength, and therefore often experience digestive difficulties and problems with absorption of nutrients. Because of the dry, light, and mobile qualities of the dosha, adding the opposite to their diet and lifestyle works best. Your Vata child really appreciates routine since the mobile qualities of the dosha disturb the air and the ether. Implementing Vata diet and lifestyle works best for them.

Getting to know your child dosha

In order to know your child’s dosha you need to keep in mind that there are two aspects to consider. One is the Prakruti of the child which is determined in the moment of conception. The other aspect is the Vakriti which is the present dosha according to age and any dis-balance. It is also ever changing.

4 Lifestyle keys for children balance

If you are a mother, you easily know that a child without routine is a confuse child. Ayurveda point certain times during the day and a few tips to make that routine flow for both of you.

Daily Rhythms/Sleep

We also have daily cycles of doshas in addition to the dosha seasons.  They happen twice a day. The first cycle begins when the sun rises:

5 a.m. to 10 a.m. – Kapha time

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. – Pitta time

2 p.m. to 6 p.m. – Vatta time

3 factors that influence your doshas

1)    Age (Three Stage of Life) and the Doshas

We evolve through three different stages of life, each related to the functions of the dosha that predominates during those years.

Childhood is the Kapha stage. The body grows and builds and constantly demands nourishment to develop strong tissues. Symptoms related to disturbances of Kapha are more common in the childhood stage (i.e.: colds, mucus and congestion). Dry and warm foods will help greatly.

Quik understanding of the 3 doshas

Vata or Winter

Vata is a combination of air and space (ether). In winter the qualities of nature are light, dry, mobile, subtle, cold and rough. So as a result, Vata has similar qualities.

The functions of the body that involve movement and which are all-pervasive, are performed by Vata. The Vata functions are body movements, blood circulation, respiration, excretion, speech, sensation, touch and hearing. In emotions, it manifests as fear, anxiety, grief, enthusiasm and natural urges. In the physical it relates to the formation of the fetus, sexual urges, and retention. Vata is the lead dosha and influencing the other two doshas and when imbalanced causes 60% of diseases.

Spotting your child dosha

Who are your children?

Have you ever wondered about the difference in children from their interest in sports to their hair color or that some are thinner or put on weight easily? No two children are the same.

In Ayurveda there are three basic body types (doshas), and for children, each kid-type will be more susceptible to certain conditions and behavior traits if there is an imbalance.   

The three basic kid-types (doshas) are:

Vata – the magic elf

Pitta – the invincible warrior

Kapha – adorable teddy bear

Parenting with ayurveda

Ayurveda holds the secret to keep your children healthy, balanced and happy. Ayurveda is the traditional holistic system of healing that has been practiced in India for over four thousand years. The term Ayurveda comes from the Sanskrit  “ayur” meaning “life” or “longevity”, and, “veda”, meaning “knowledge” or “wisdom”; it is therefore often translated as “knowledge of living” or “the science of long life”.