How can we avoid illness?
Good food, exercise and rest help us stay well. But we also need to keep clean and visit the doctor.
Personal hygiene
Bacteria are tiny living things. They are everywhere, but we cannot see them. Most are harmless, and some can make us ill. Good personal hygiene keeps the bad ones away:
Check-ups
A check-up is a visit to the doctor when nothing is wrong, just to make sure you are healthy. The doctor usually:
- 1📏 Measures your height and weight
to check that you are growing well.
- 2🔦 Looks inside your ears, nose, mouth and throat
with a little light.
- 3👁️ Tests your sight and hearing
Can you read the letters? Can you hear the sounds?
- 4💪 Measures your blood pressure
with a sphygmomanometer: a band around your arm that squeezes a little.
- 5🩺 Listens to your heart and lungs
with a stethoscope.
Use if to say what happens when you do something: If you wash your hands before every meal, you kill bacteria that can make you ill. If you eat a balanced diet, you get all the nutrients you need.
