Community Connect Week in Review: Building Healthy Routines: Sleep & Nutrition for the Developing Brain

     Community Connect is in full swing! Read on for an overview of the September 4th session that kicked it all off. Our first “by parents, for parents” event featured guest speaker and pediatrician Datta T. Munshi, M.D. on the topic of “Building Healthy Routines: Sleep & Nutrition for the Developing Brain”—and it did not disappoint!
     Families across the West Community of schools joined us for a great meal from Pepperoni’s Midway. After dinner, children enjoyed fun activities in the gym, while parents settled in to explore the topic of sleep and nutrition. Our facilitator shared the idea that our relationship with food starts early. Dr. Munshi highlighted nutrition basics by age group, tips to help younger children get things off to a good start and challenges facing today’s teens. She also offered best practices for countering these issues, encouraging balance, mini meals, drinking more water, “screen time” management and making sleep a priority. 
     Speaking of nighttime “zzzzzs,” Dr. Munshi shared perspective on how lack of sleep impacts our elementary, middle and high school kids, what sleep deprivation looks like, and how over scheduling impacts children and parents alike.
Subsequent breakout discussions enabled parents to connect and share best practices on:

• Strategies for picky eaters
• Ways families can make time for “healthy” in their hectic days
• Strategies for countering the epidemic of over scheduled families
• Ways to communicate and model the importance of sleep
• What healthy relationships with “screen time” look like

Community Connect would like to extend a big thank you to the businesses in our community that sponsored this event: Village Pediatrics and Pepperoni’s Midway.

Now it’s time to save the date! Next week’s Community Connect takes place September 11th at 5:30 pm at host venue Vickery Creek Elementary. The spotlight topic is “Employing Healthy Strategies: Managing Anxiety and Stress” with guest speaker and nationally certified counselor, Nicole Yaksh, APC, NCC, CCTP of Lea Counseling. Click to learn more about the session and speaker—and to register for dinner. $5 feeds the entire family, and childcare for ages 3 and up is free! Dinner will be sponsored by Moe's.   
 
To view the full calendar of 2019-2020 Community Connect events, visit us here.