What is the difference between parenting and child health

The core difference between the two is that the scope and orientation are completely different - parenting is a full-dimensional parenting practice that covers children from birth to adulthood and even beyond, ranging from eating and dressing to personality shaping, while children's health is a professional field that focuses on the physical and mental development of children. It is not only one of the most important anchors in the parenting process, but also has independent clinical and public health value.

Many novice parents tend to confuse these two things at first, and they will start to feel internal when they encounter some problems. When I was doing parenting guidance in the community, I met a stay-at-home mother. Her baby had fever three times in the first month of kindergarten. She sat in the consultation room and shed tears. She said that she usually didn't even dare to give her baby an extra bite of cold food, so why did she still raise her baby so poorly? This is a typical equating of the two. It is believed that good parenting means that the child will not get sick at all. In fact, this understanding has always been controversial: many bloggers who advocate refined parenting will attribute all children’s health problems to the parents’ neglect of parenting. However, the consensus in the field of clinical child care is that children The immune system and neurological development of children have their own objective laws. Even if you memorize all the parenting guidelines by heart, your child may get rash when the seasons change, or have repeated cross-infections when he first enters day care. These are necessary stages of growth and cannot be directly equated with "parenting failure".

Taking a closer look, the evaluation criteria for the two are completely different. Parenting is a very individual family practice. Do you want to raise your baby free-range and let him play in the mud, or raise your baby carefully and provide nutritious meals for each month? As long as you don't touch the bottom line, it is a choice that suits your family. There is no absolute right or wrong. However, there are unified evidence-based standards for children's health. For example, honey cannot be fed to children under 1 year old, complementary foods should be introduced around 6 months of age, and the height and weight of 3-year-old children must fall within the reasonable range of the corresponding growth curve. These are red lines that must be adhered to no matter what parenting philosophy you believe in, and there is no room for negotiation.

To use an inappropriate analogy, if you compare raising a child to taking care of a pot of roses, parenting is the whole process of watering, pruning, and moving out to bask in the sun. You can raise it extensively to let it adapt to the weather, or you can raise it intensively to build a shelf to control it. The flowering period depends on how comfortable it is; and children's health is the growth indicator of this potted flower - whether there are aphids, whether the leaves will turn yellow, whether the flower buds are strong enough, these have clear judgment standards, and they will not change because of whether you are raising them extensively or intensively.

To be honest, clearly distinguishing these two concepts can help parents reduce a lot of unnecessary anxiety. When you are usually thinking about how to play with your baby and how to help your baby develop good habits, it is okay to read more about parenting experience and communicate more. If you encounter a situation where your baby is lagging behind in development, frequently sick, or feeling unwell, don't look for answers in parenting posts. Direct consultation with professionals related to children's health is more reliable than anything else.