Healthy Habits During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented new challenges to maintaining healthy habits and a healthy weight for our patients and families. We know that kids tend to lose structure and gain excess weight in the summer because we saw this prior to COVID-19. Now, we are facing the most stressful and unpredictable summer of our lifetime.

Listen to pediatric experts discuss healthy habits for kids during COVID-19

In this episode, we discuss healthy routines for pediatricians to discuss with patients and parents that can help them preserve healthy habits and weight.

Today we are fortunate to have Matt Haemer, MD, and Richard Boles, PhD, join us from our Clinical Nutrition department at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Dr. Haemer helps to lead the nutrition team at Children’s Colorado and is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Nutrition at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Dr. Boles is a psychologist with the Clinical Nutrition team at Children’s Colorado and Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Nutrition at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

In this episode, our experts discuss:

• Issues our providers are seeing among patients and families during the pandemic, such as increased anxiety and stress
• The importance of structure and routine for maintaining healthy habits and weight
• The role of a mealtime schedule in preventing eating in response to boredom and stress
• Ideas on how parents can reinforce meal schedules with younger and older kids, especially if parents are working at home and can’t monitor them continuously
• Planning meals and snacks ahead of time to help make healthy choices at the grocery store
• The role that increased screen time has on eating habits
• The importance of parents modeling the healthy behaviors they expect from their kids as it relates to eating, screen time and exercising
• Setting expectations for the amount of physical activity their kids should get each day and providing creative ideas so it’s doable
• Specific tips for helping both younger and older kids deal with stress during the COVID-19 pandemic

Treatment of infectious diseases at Children’s Colorado

Our pediatric experts in the Infectious Disease Program at Children's Colorado provide a breadth of expertise ranging from laboratory-based research to the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Pediatricians can treat many infectious diseases, but when unique or different symptoms are present, it’s important to refer to a pediatric specialist. We are prepared and ready to treat patients with suspected or confirmed 2019 novel coronavirus. Our clinical staff has been specially trained on how to identify, isolate and treat patients with this and other contagious illnesses.