How to Survive as Parents and Raise Tough Kids | Pediatrician

Between 2016 and 2022, the number of children hospitalized for mental illness in the United States rose by nearly 25 percent, according to national health insurance data.

What lifestyle factors are impacting children’s mental health? What can parents do to build their kids’ mental strength?

Los Angeles pediatrician Dr. Joel “Gator” Warsh says parents need to prioritize their own health if they want to influence their children toward healthy behaviors.

For example, he says, if you’re always stressed and nervous, and you need to support yourself by getting therapy, then you should go and get therapy. Eating healthy food is also vitally important.

“You can’t expect your kid who’s 8 to go out in nature and go on hikes without you, right?” says Warsh. “We have to model these things.”

Over recent decades, the trend has been toward more time spent indoors, with children drawn to their devices and parents wary of predators and other perceived dangers.

“We have … an epidemic of kids not being in nature and [not] being outside,” says Warsh.

“Kids … are exercise deprived and sunlight deprived. … We have vitamin D deficiency everywhere. Basically, everybody’s vitamin D deficient.”

On “Vital Signs with Brendon Fallon,” Warsh suggests basic habits and a shift in the parenting mindset to foster parent and child resilience.

This begins with parents trusting themselves more and allowing some “margin for error,” he says.

“There’s so much information overload [that] sometimes parents don’t know what to trust, but that’s where your gut comes in. That’s where your intuition comes in, stepping back and realizing, well, parents have been doing this forever,” he says.

Up Next:

Watch “Sharpen ADHD Focus” on tips to handle the low dopamine of ADHD.

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Read Dr. Warsh’s “Between a Shot and a Hard Place: Tackling difficult vaccine questions with balance, data, and clarity”

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Vital Signs’ host, guests, and contributors offer general information on improving health and wellness. This is not intended as diagnosis or medical advice. You should consult your medical doctor or holistic doctor before enacting any suggested strategies for health and wellness improvement, including those in relation to preventing or treating specific diseases featured on this program.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.