Is it safe for your little one to fast?

Fasting is a religious obligation for healthy adults. But what about children? Even though fasting is not yet mandatory, some parents may want to teach their children to fast from an early age so they get used to it later in life. From a religious perspective, a person is obliged to fast when they reach puberty, around the age of 9 to 14 years for boys and 8 to 13 years for girls. From a health perspective, at what age can children be taught to fast?

From a health perspective, children can fast according to religious recommendations, namely when they reach puberty, around the age of 9 to 14 years for boys and 8 to 13 years for girls. Metabolically, children are ready to fast at that age. At around 8–9 years old, parents can start teaching their children to fast. At an age before that

Just like for adults, the benefits of fasting for children include:

1. Teaching children to be disciplined
2. Train patience and self-control in children.
3. Improves immune system function
4. Suppresses inflammation and oxidative stress associated with cancer.
5. Inhibits premature aging

So that children can fast smoothly, there are several things that parents need to pay attention to when their children are fasting, including:

1. The child must be in good health.
2. While the child is fasting, the child must also receive fluids or nutrition according to their needs.
3. Before teaching your little one to fast, parents can first consult a pediatrician to find out whether their child can fast and how to fulfill the nutritional and fluid needs that must be met during fasting.

 

Children's conditions for which fasting is not recommended

1. Children who are sick
2. Children who are chronically ill are undergoing routine medication because there are concerns that it will interfere with the administration of the medication.
3. Children with eating disorders or children who are malnourished.

 

Healthy fasting tips for children

1. Check your child's health condition by first consulting a pediatrician.
2. Can be started at the age of 8–9 years.
3. Children's diet when fasting: when fasting, the child can be given foods with a low glycemic index, such as dates, and carbohydrates with a low glycemic index, such as brown rice. Avoid saturated fats and avoid using UPF (ultra-processed food). Protein can be obtained from fish, eggs, or meat. Likewise, at dawn, choose foods that will prevent excessive hunger as much as possible.
4. Apart from that, children's sleeping hours also need to be paid attention to because children have to wake up at dawn, so as much as possible, children can sleep as early as possible. So that the child's sleep time is fulfilled for 8 hours.
5. Reduce children's physical activity.

Hermina friends, listen to Dr. Puspita, Sp.A., about fasting in children in full on OBSERVASI HERMINA on the Hermina Hospitals YouTube channel (click here).