Ayurveda For Kids

mother and son embracing

Most of us have had the experience of wanting to offer the best foot forward for the children in our lives—whether we have the privilege of raising them or are simply fortunate enough to know and love them.

As an art and science of living, Ayurveda has a great deal of wisdom that is just as easily applied to children as adults. We hope that this resource will help you to apply some of the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda to the children in your life—in support of their vibrant health.

We can keep kapha in check by feeding kids a balanced diet focused on naturally light, heating, dry, and fibrous foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. Ideally, we want these foods cooked, using generous amounts of warming, digestive spices such as garlic, ginger, cinnamon, and turmeric, and we want to serve them warm or hot.

Favor the pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes, and reduce kapha-provoking foods like wheat, dairy, and sugary sweets. If you’d like to know more, please see our resource on how to follow a Kapha-Pacifying Diet, as well as our list of Kapha-Pacifying Foods (which includes those best avoided).

Lifestyle

Maintaining a strong level of physical activity is one of the most supportive lifestyle choices that we can encourage children to make because it improves circulation in the blood and the lymph, balances energy levels, supports the proper flow of nutrients, and bolsters detoxification mechanisms throughout the body’s organs and tissues. Regular exercise—even in the form of play—can dramatically curb kapha’s problematic tendency toward stagnation. 

Herbs and Formulas

You can further support agni (the digestive fire) and continue to clear excess kapha from the system by offering children supportive herbs in honey. Experiment with different combinations of things like cinnamon, ginger, trikatu, turmeric, and sitopaladi. Give them a total of ¼ teaspoon of your favorite single- or mixed-herb combo, stirred into a spoonful of raw honey, one to three times per day.

This can be particularly beneficial during kapha season (winter and early spring), times of transition, or whenever a child is experiencing an acute kapha imbalance. You can also sprinkle a bit of trikatu powder (the same formula found in Kapha Digest tablets) on a child’s food like pepper to help to kindle agni and counter excess kapha throughout the system.

The Importance of Digestion

Ayurveda regards digestion as the very cornerstone of health. Therefore, whether they are dealing with an acute imbalance or not, we want our children to have robust digestive strength; it will help them to foster optimal health and well-being throughout their lives.

In order to function at its best, the digestive fire needs to be hot, sharp, dry, light, mobile, subtle, luminous, and clear. In the interest of protecting the natural intelligence of agni, we can also encourage the children in our lives to:

 The Importance of Routine

As many of you who are already familiar with Ayurveda know, a daily routine is considered critically important to our overall health and wellness, and a routine may be even more important for children. Routines create safety, stability, and trust for a child’s nervous system while supporting their physiology to develop healthy habits.

Healthy Sleeping Habits

Children need considerably more sleep than adults, and while their sleep habits will change dramatically from infancy through puberty, ensuring that they get enough of it is critical.

Develop as much consistency as possible around when children nap during the day (if applicable), go to bed at night, and awaken in the morning. Obviously, their schedule will need to adapt as they grow and their needs change, but there’s no question that consistent sleep routines foster health.

Healthy Eating Routines

Children do best when their bodies can rely on eating at predictable times each day. Ideally, their eating routines should be focused around several substantive meals, served at about the same times each day, and that provide their primary source of nutrition—with minimal snacking in between.

Most kids do well with three meals a day, but this may need to be adapted according to each individual’s constitutional type and digestive strength. Some kids will need to eat more frequently than that, or at least be supplemented with a snack or two.

Do your best to allow at least three hours between each meal or snack. This will allow the digestive fire to fully process each one before more input is introduced. It also helps the body to develop healthy habits in terms of regulating blood sugar and energy levels. 

Healthy Lifestyle Habits

When it comes to lifestyle, it will generally benefit kids to cultivate consistency and predictability wherever possible—especially around mealtimes, playtimes, nap times, bedtimes, and waking times.

This doesn’t mean that life should be rigidly structured with no room for spontaneity. But it is helpful for kids to have a structural framework within which variety can emerge. A life that’s completely unpredictable is rather hard on children’s nervous systems, and a lack of routine also makes it much more difficult for kids to stay connected to their natural circadian rhythms and bodily intelligence.

Mindfulness and Meditation for Children

Similarly, very young children can be encouraged to observe their bodies and their minds in age-appropriate ways, as long as this is done in short stints that the children can manage.

They can sit and count their breaths, observe a candle as they sit peacefully (in a safely supervised way), close their eyes and invite serenity for a minute or two, or be encouraged to give their full attention to receiving nourishment at a family meal.

Children will also learn a great deal from observing the adults in their lives taking time to engage with mindfulness and meditation, so prioritizing these practices yourself will surely have a long-term impact as well.

Here are a few easily-accessible suggestions: