Keeping Your Child Cancer Safe

One of the worst prospects imaginable for parents would be to tell that their child has cancer.

Though pediatric cancer can strike unexpectedly and inexplicably, there are things you can do to make sure you are doing your best to keep your child cancer safe:

  • Lead a healthy lifestyle and lead by example. Engage in lots of physical activity which involves the entire family and is fun as well. This helps to stay fit and healthy and helps keep a number of diseases at bay.
  • Make sure you and your family eat healthy, with lot of fresh vegetables and fruit, organic if possible to limit the amount of chemical fertilizers, pesticides etc that may be inadvertently consumed along with food.
  • Cut out refined and processed foods, in particular those with a lot of additives, salt and sugar and artificial flavoring.
  • Health supplements like cod liver or fish oil are a good idea because they can keep cancer at bay and even make kids smarter and less prone to aggression and depression.
  • It goes without saying that you should not be smoking and if you absolutely must, make sure it isn’t indoors and that your children don’t breathe in any of the second hand smoke.
  • Live in areas that are away from main roads and gas stations. Living close to the main road or gas stations has been shown to increase risk of childhood leukemia. Power cables, phone masts and pylons also increase cancer risk so try and keep your kids away from those.
  • Don’t give them cell phones. Definitive causes or links may not yet be established between cell phone use and brain tumors, but there is enough anecdotal evidence to be cautious about cell phone use, particularly in children because they have thinner skulls and their brains are still developing.
  • Be careful about the kind of cleaning materials at home. As far as possible use things from the kitchen such as vinegar and baking soda for cleaning, rather than the strong chemicals.
  • Don’t bring herbicides and pesticides into the house and don’t use them around the house either.
  • Don’t use antibiotics and mercury based vaccines if you can help it.
  • Let kids be kids, and let them be exposed to a healthy dose of dirt and germs. Mollycoddling and protecting them all the time and making the home an aseptic environment actually does not let the child’s immune system develop very well. This may leave them prone to disease and allergy and may not offer effective cancer protection either.