Signs of Children Must Cancel Fasting, Parents Don’t Be Careless

If a child wants to try to learn to fast, as a parent you need to pay more careful attention to their health condition. In order to prevent dangerous things from happening, it is important to recognize the signs that a child needs to break the fast.
Conditions Requiring Children to Invalidate Fasting
Even though they don’t fully fast like adults, learning to fast can be hard for your little one. Naturally, at first the child will complain of weakness, hunger and thirst.
However, there are several bodily conditions that indicate a child must cancel fasting, including:
1. Dizziness to Heavy Breathing
A fasted child may become severely dehydrated. This can be caused by the child’s lack of fluid intake at dawn, or the child has activities that are quite draining so that they become dehydrated.
Some of the symptoms of dehydration that children can experience include dark yellow or brown urine, dizziness, nausea, headaches, dry lips, and heavy breathing.
If your little one experiences some of these symptoms, then you should immediately cancel the fast and fill up on body fluids.
2. Experiencing Cold Sweat
When fasting, don’t be surprised if your little one experiences a decrease in calorie intake. This decrease in the number of calories can cause the metabolic system to also decrease which is marked by cold sweats at night.
If your little one experiences cold sweats at night after fasting, you should stop fasting for a few days.
If it occurs in the long term, a lack of calories in children will cause disturbances in their growth and learning abilities.
Also Read: 7 Ways to Deal with Fussy Children during Fasting, Parents Must Know
3. Stomachache
If your little one complains of stomach pain, you should immediately cancel the fast. Feeling sick in the stomach can be a sign of gastritis or inflammation of the stomach.
Stomach ulcers in fasting children can occur due to changes in diet. The stomach will secrete acid when it’s time to eat.
When fasting, children will skip this meal time. As a result, acidic substances will erode the stomach wall and eventually irritation of the stomach wall appears.
Tips Fasting for Children to Stay Healthy
Teaching your little one to fast from an early age is a good thing. However, the most important thing is to pay attention to the health of his body.
Here are some tips to keep your little one healthy while fasting, including:
1. Don’t Miss Sahur
Breakfast is an important meal for the growth and development of children. Likewise with breakfast.
Sahur can provide the energy, fluids, and nutrients your little one needs during fasting until their iftar time. Sahur can also prevent it from becoming dehydrated.
2. Remind to Drink Water
You need to provide and remind your little one to drink lots of water during iftar and sahur time to reduce the risk of dehydration.
You can also give milk, fruit juice, and soup to help meet fluid needs. However, water is still the best choice.
3. Choose a Healthy and Balanced Nutritional Menu
Children need complete nutrition to support their growth and development. Therefore, you need to prepare a menu for breaking the fast and sahur that contains balanced nutrition. Don’t forget protein, carbohydrates, fiber, and good fats in every meal menu.
You should also avoid giving fried foods and foods that are too salty at dawn so that your little one doesn’t feel too thirsty during fasting. Providing foods that contain a high source of fiber at dawn is good for making him feel full longer.
Training your little one to fast from an early age is a good thing. In order not to have an adverse effect on health, you should consult a pediatrician to be able to find out the duration of fasting and limits according to the condition of his body.
- Anonymous. 2020. 10 Possible Reasons Why Your Child Isn’t Growing. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/10-possible-reasons-why-your-child-is-not-growing/. (Accessed 16 February 2023).
- Anonymous. 2020. Dehydration and Your Child. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/8276-dehydration-and-your-child. (Accessed 16 February 2023).
- Chumari, Alvin. ?Healthy Ramadan Fasting. https://www.healthxchange.sg/food-nutrition/food-tips/healthy-ramadan-fasting-tips. (Accessed 16 February 2023).
- Wint, Carmella. 2021. gastritis. https://www.healthline.com/health/gastritis. (Accessed 16 February 2023).
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