Is your child 'laki sa gatas'?

MANILA, Philippines - Influenza and colds are two of the most common diseases during the rainy season. The alternating heat and rain that go with the season tend to weaken the body’s immune system against these illnesses.

The Department of Health has stressed the importance of a strong immune system, which guards the body against diseases and helps speed up recovery when sick. To help protect their children from diseases, parents must understand how the body can be strengthened to fight these diseases. As a first line of defense, proper diet and exercise are essential to strengthening body resistance against illnesses and infections, according to Jasmin Estacio, consumer marketing manager for Bear Brand.

Natural immunity boosters include green leafy vegetables, spinach, citrus fruits, and fortified milk. According to Estacio, milk is a nutritious beverage with essential vitamins and minerals, “Bear Brand Powdered Milk Drink is fortified with resistance-building iron, zinc, and vitamin C nutrients that help strengthen the child’s immunity, he adds.

 Vitamin C aids in boosting the immune system by increasing the body’s levels of glutathione and by producing a protein that kills viruses in the body. A recent study conducted by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh found that zinc also speeds up one’s recovery from pneumonia, dubbed as a fatal complication of flu and known as the leading cause of death among children aged five years and below.

Iron is an essential protein component that helps improve body metabolism. Regular and sufficient intake of iron helps improve the body’s defense mechanism against infections.

“The food and beverage choices we make as parents are critical to our children’s health and nutrition,” notes Estacio. 

To encourage parents to make the right food choices for their kids and bring back the habit of milk drinking among children, Bear Brand Powdered Milk Drink launched its Nutrition Education Advocacy Program called Laki sa Gatas (Growing Up with Milk) in 2006.

At the core of the Laki sa Gatas campaign’s various nutrition-centered activities in every public school that it visits is a seminar on proper eating and kids’ nourishment. Mothers who sign up learn how to make the right food choices for their families based on the “Go, Grow and Glow” categories, and provide the basic nutrients in their children’s diet. Conducted by a certified nutritionist, the seminar also emphasizes that healthy meals need not be expensive.

The children’s session, on the other hand, includes numerous fun and educational activities for second- and third-graders. These include storytelling sessions, exciting games, and an activity called “Ambition Glasses,” in which their drawings that represent their ambition in life are inserted around drinking glasses to serve as a reminder that they can achieve their dreams if they stay strong and healthy. Giveaways like meal planners, school lunch packs, recipe brochures, pencil cases, and other items are given to the participants.

To date, the Laki sa Gatas program has advocated proper nutrition among 1,938,159 children, 994,553 mothers, 53,898 teachers, and 3,549 barangay nutrition scholars.