Asthma is a breathing disorder that causes the small airways in your lungs to become inflamed or swollen. It may also lead to airway spasms. Both of these conditions narrow your airway and make it hard for you to breathe.

Inside the lungs are airways called breathing tubes or bronchial tubes. With asthma, some of the smallest tubes can swell and narrow, making it harder for air to get through. Kids with asthma can have trouble breathing because the airways are sensitive.

Every person with asthma has different triggers. Some people have one or two. Others have a dozen. Triggers may change from winter to summer. Some kids even outgrow triggers as they get older. Commons asthma triggers include:

• cigarette smoke (including secondhand smoke)
• car exhaust and other air pollutants
• smoke from recreational fires
• cold air
• chemical sprays
• perfumes, scented deodorants and other strong odors
• allergy triggers such as animal dander, dust, mold, pollen and mites
• strong emotions
• exercise, sports, work or play.

Asthma can’t be cured, but it can be managed. Managing asthma means doing everything you can to keep the symptoms of asthma, like wheezing and coughing, from happening.

Use our Health Powered Kids lesson, “Breathe Easy: Asthma 101” and Power Chargers as guides to help your kids build awareness of, and compassion for, people who live with this chronic condition.

We only get one set of eyes to last us our entire lives. So it’s important to protect them. There are lots of ways we can take care of our eyes that will help them work better for us now and in the future.

1. Eat foods with a lot of beta carotene. Beta carotene is found in orange foods such as carrots, sweet potatoes and pumpkins. It helps keep your eyes strong and working well.
2. Give your eyes a break from the screen. Your eyes need rest just like the rest of your body does. When working on a computer or using other electronics with screens, take a break every 15 minutes or so.
3. Make sure you have enough light when doing activities that you need to look at an object closely, such as reading, writing or doing puzzles.
4. Protect your eyes from getting hurt when playing sports or doing other physical activities, such as swimming.
5. Protect your eyes from bright light and the sun.

It’s also important to wear eye protection during these activities:

• swimming: swim goggles, especially in chlorinated water
• outdoor cold weather sports with lots of sun exposure (such as skiing or snowboarding): sport goggles with UV protection
• outdoor warm weather sports with lots of sun exposure (such as sailing or other water sports): sport or sun goggles with UV protection
• contact sports (such as basketball or soccer): sport goggles, if a prescription is needed
• shooting sports, using power tools or doing science experiments: protective safety glasses or goggles.

Use our Health Powered Kids lesson, “Eye Protection” and Power Chargers as guides to talk to your children about the importance of protecting their eyes.

[KMSP Fox 9, Oct. 8, 2015] No parent wants to see their child stressed out, or to be stressed out themselves. Stress makes family life challenging for everyone. It’s impossible to shelter our families from all stress, though. Some stress is normal and unavoidable. Now, Allina Health has online tools to help kids, teens, parents and educators deal with that stress.

Susan Nygaard, manager of the Allina Health Community Health Improvement program talked with Fox 9’s morning news team about two web sites, Health Powered Kids and Change to Chill to help kids of all ages, and even adults. Click here to watch the segment.

With the start of a new school year, now may be the time to get your kids in the habit of eating a healthy breakfast. Breakfast is touted as the “most important meal of the day”—and there’s some truth to that. Studies show that kids who eat breakfast tend to eat healthier overall and are more likely to participate in physical activities which helps in maintaining a healthy body weight. Breakfast gives the body the refueling it needs for the day ahead after going without food for eight to 10 hours during sleep.

Eating breakfast is important for everyone but especially so for children and teens. In general, kids who skip breakfast will feel tired, restless and irritable. What they eat is also important. Choosing breakfast foods that are rich in whole grains, fiber and protein while low in added sugar may enhance their attention span, concentration and memory—which they need to learn in school.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says that children who eat a healthful, well-balanced breakfast are more likely to:

• Meet their daily nutrient requirements
• Concentrate better
• Have better problem-solving skills
• Have better hand-eye coordination
• Stay alert
• Be more creative
• Miss fewer days of school
• Be more physically active

Without breakfast, our bodies don’t get the jump start they need to operate at their fullest potential throughout the day. Encourage young people to make breakfast a part of their regular household routines. By helping children learn important concepts about eating breakfast, it will lay a foundation of eating right for years to come.

Use our Health Powered Kids lessons, “Hungry for Breakfast” and “Breakfast Power” activities and Power Chargers as guides to talk to your children about the importance of breakfast.

A concussion is a blow to the head that affects how the brain works. It is a form of brain injury. You can’t see it, but it causes changes in a person’s behavior, thinking or physical actions. Young people who play sports or are active other ways, such as riding bikes or playing on the playground, are at risk for concussion.

Signs of a concussion can occur right away or hours or even days after the injury occurs. It’s possible to have a concussion even if you never lose consciousness. Signs and symptoms of a concussion can include:

• headache
• problems with memory
• upset stomach (nausea) or vomiting
• balance issues or dizziness
• double or blurry vision
• being sensitive to light or sounds
• feeling hazy, foggy or groggy
• problems concentrating
• confusion
• not “feeling right”

Long-term problems are possible if a person has more than one concussion, or is re-injured before the brain fully heals. That’s why rest, seeking medical treatment, and following a doctor’s instructions are all important. Even better is to prevent concussions in the first place.

The brain is a very important organ. Without it, nothing else in a body can function. Teach your child how to prevent concussions and protect their brain with our “Brain Boost”  and “The Concussion Conundrum” lessons, activities and Power Chargers.

Our redesigned Health Powered Kids website is now live! We have new content, an improved search function and we’re now mobile friendly!

Summer is fun, but sunburn’s aren’t. The sun is our body’s main source of Vitamin D, which makes our bones stronger and healthier by absorbing calcium, but repeated unprotected exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays can cause damage to the skin, eyes and even cause skin cancer.

Parents may even be unsure about how to effectively protect kids from the sun’s damaging rays. But there are many ways to prevent sunburns and help kids understand the importance of protecting their skin – the body’s largest organ:

• Young people should wear a sunscreen with a SPF (sun protection factor) of 30 or higher while in the sun.
• They should also be especially careful from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. when the sun is the strongest.
• It is important that sunscreen is reapplied often, especially after getting the skin wet.
• It may be helpful to wear long sleeves and a hat to protect the skin from overexposure.
• Wearing sunglasses with 100% UV (ultraviolet) protection while outside will help protect the eyes from being damaged by the sun.

Remember, these smart sun safety tips aren’t just for summer. You can practice these all year long.

Shed some light on sun precautions and check out our “Skin: Caring for our largest organ”  and “Safe and Fun, In the Sun” lessons, activities and Power Chargers to help your children protect their skin.

If you ask kids where their food comes from, you’ll likely hear, “the store”. While that’s true, food doesn’t grow at the store. All food has to “grow” somewhere, whether it’s an animal for meat, grains for processing into flour and other products, or artificial flavorings made in a lab to mimic whole food flavors found in nature.

Fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, can grow in many different ways. They can grow on trees like apples do, or they can grow underground from a root like a carrot. They also grow on vines and bushes.

It’s good to eat foods as close to their natural state as possible – and fruits and vegetables are the easiest type of food to find in a natural state. That means that not much has been done to them before they get to us. Foods that come in boxes and can be stored on shelves for months, for example, have been processed and had things added to them to preserve them long before they get to us, in particular lots of them have added sugar.

One fun way to get healthy, natural food is by growing your own garden. Not only will gardening provide healthy food, it may also help you relax. If you work together in the garden, it may be a time for family bonding.

It’s not too late to get your garden growing! Check out our “Gardening – Growing Goodness” and “Water: making living things grow”  lessons, activities and Power Chargers to help your children start their own garden.

Choosing healthful snacks is a habit that can benefit kids every day as they grow. But to a lot of kids and teens, a snack is a bag of chips, some cookies or other high calorie, low nutrient food. Kids are eating more snacks than ever and their calorie intake from those snacks has nearly doubled over the last 30 years. Unfortunately, the extra snacking has contributed to individuals becoming overweight in our society.

Which is why, as part of Healthy Kids Day at the YMCA in Willmar, MN approximately 100 kids and their families took the time to learn about Allina Health’s Health Powered Kids program and
the importance of healthful snacks. “We came up with a healthy trail mix that families could make together that would provide them with energy throughout the day,” says Amber Chevalier, ReYou Program Wellness Care Guide at Rice Memorial Hospital.  “We also had kids sign the pledge to ‘Eat Right and Move More‘ and asked their parents to hold them accountable.”

The YMCA plans to incorporate Health Powered Kids lessons and Power Chargers into their summer day camp as well.

While snacking isn’t bad for kids, it’s important to be mindful about the kinds of snacks they have. Snacking can help kids stay focused at school and while doing homework, and give them a nutrition boost for the day. Healthful snacks are ones that fit into the five food groups. For example, string cheese (dairy) and carrot sticks (vegetable). Potato chips may start out as a healthful vegetable but after processing, it becomes high in calories, fat and sodium.

Health Powered Kids tools you can use:

• Visit healthpoweredkids.org to access online lessons and resources.
• Share an activity from healthpoweredkids.org with a personal note to your child’s teacher, school nurse, Scout leader, sports coach, camp counselor or daycare provider.

Our 2014 user survey indicated that 88 percent of respondents found Health Powered Kids “essential,” “very helpful” or “helpful” in improving health at their home, school or organization.  Healthier starts at healthpoweredkids.org.

The heart is a muscle that pumps oxygen-rich blood to the body and brings oxygen-poor blood back to the heart and lungs. It’s a tough muscle about the size of an adult fist, and it weighs about one pound. Just like any other muscle, we have to exercise it (or use it) to keep it healthy.

When we exercise, our muscles call for more oxygen, so we start to breathe faster and our heart rate increases to meet the demand of oxygen that our muscles need. The more oxygen your body gets the more energy you will have. Exercise helps your heart – and your body – stay healthy in a number of ways:

1. Helps your body maintain overall good health.
2. Helps build and maintain healthy and strong bones and muscles.
3. Increases flexibility and aerobic endurance.

Physical activity can also raise your self-esteem, improve your mood, help you sleep better and give you more energy. It should be as important to your daily routine as brushing your teeth, bathing and getting enough sleep. Making it a part of your everyday life is also a good way to help achieve and maintain a healthy body weight. It’s important to be physically active every day.

Be sure to check out our “Your Happy Heart” and “Healthy Heart” lessons, activities to help your children understand the importance of keeping their hearts healthy.

Get kids active this summer through Skyhawks youth sports camps – discounted registration
Keep your kids active this summer and save $10 on the registration fee for Skyhawks™ youth sports camps.  Our Health Powered Kids program is committed to keeping kids healthy, active and eating right and so is Skyhawks. Discount good for camps in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin for the first 100 online registrations on www.skyhawks.com/minnesota. Enter your zip code to find camps in your area. Use discount code: AHO515 at check out (expires May 31, 2015).

Did you hear something? Maybe the sound you heard was as quiet as your cat licking her paws. Or maybe it was loud, like a siren going by. Sounds are everywhere, and your ears are in charge of collecting those sounds, processing them, and sending sound signals to your brain. And that’s not all — your ears also help you keep your balance. So if you bend over to pick up your pencil, you won’t fall down.

As body parts go, your ears don’t ask for much. They don’t need to be brushed like your teeth or trimmed like your fingernails, but they do need to be protected in certain situations. The ear is made up of three different sections: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. All these parts work together so we can hear and process sounds.

Protect your hearing by wearing earplugs at loud music concerts or around noisy machinery. Keep the volume down on your car stereo and be mindful while wearing headphones. Remember, your ears take care of you, so be sure to take care of them.

Check out our “Listen hear! All About the Ear” lesson to help your children understand the different parts of the ear and how to protect them.