Health Vocabulary for Kids

Nutrition

• You can teach your child the ins and outs of healthy eating by introducing him to key vocabulary words such as nutrition or diet, calories, food pyramid, carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Although he might associate nutrition with arbitrary restrictions on his favorite foods, nutrition explains how a body uses food and the nutrients it provides. All food contains calories, the unit of measure for how much energy is produced by the food your child eats. The calories come from the carbohydrates, fats and proteins in the food. Carbohydrates come from sugary foods, starches such as grains, breads, crackers and pasta, dairy products, fruits and vegetables and provide the body's main source of energy. Fats also fuel the body with energy and storing excess energy and vitamins. Sources of fat include oil, butter, nuts, meat, fish and dairy products. Protein builds, maintains and repairs your child's muscles, organs and immune system. Beef, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, black beans and lentils are among the best sources of protein nutrients.

Exercise

• In your quest to help your child establish healthy exercise habits for lifelong health, words such as exercise, cardiovascular, endurance, flexibility, obesity and target heart rate will come in handy. Puyallup (Washington) School District PE teachers Dan Stueckle, Glenn Halverson and Corrine Mattes define exercise as regularly planned physical activity to improve or maintain personal fitness. Cardiovascular refers to the heart and when used in conjunction with exercise, it means physical activity that makes your child's heart beat faster and burns more calories. Endurance is a measure of how long your child can continue a particular exercise before becoming too tired to continue. Flexibility refers to your child's ability to bend and move her arms, legs and joints freely and easily in any direction. Target heart rate is the heart rate range your child should strive to achieve during vigorous activity for the most health benefits. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina explains that obesity occurs when, through the habitual combination of unhealthy food choices and lack of exercise, a person's weight far exceeds her normal healthy weight.

Dental

• A visit to the dentist gives you the opportunity to introduce him to dental health vocabulary such as cavities, plaque, tartar, gingivitis and fluoride. Cavities are holes in your child's teeth where the tooth decays and breaks down because your child doesn't keep his teeth clean by regular brushing and flossing. This decay happens because of a sticky germ-ridden substance called plaque that builds up on your child's teeth and eats away at the tooth enamel causing cavities and gum disease. Tartar or calculus is a type of plaque that forms along the gumline, discoloring the teeth as it hardens, irritating the gum tissues. Gingivitis is another word for gum disease. Gingivitis inflames the gum tissue causing it to become red, swollen and tender. Bleeding gums can be a sign of gingivitis as can chronic bad breath. The best defense against these dental problems is regular flossing and brushing with a fluoride toothpaste. Fluoride is a natural mineral that protects your child's teeth by hardening the enamel against decay.

Medical

• Common childhood complaints give you the opportunity to educate your child in health vocabulary such as temperature, earache, fever, stomachache, headache, diarrhea, nausea, sore throat, sprains, strains, cuts, scrapes, bruises, broken bones, colds, coughs and chicken pox. If your child or a family member suffers from a chronic health condition such as diabetes, cancer, asthma or allergies, a frank discussion of the problem and the proper treatment and management will give your child the confidence she needs to feel in control of her own body and health.