It's difficult for parents to ensure that their kids are making healthy choices when they're not around, and kids spend a significant portion of their days at school, away from Mom and Dad's watchful eye. While school administrators play their part by ensuring that children don't partake in unsafe horseplay and other behaviors, it's mostly up to the kids themselves to make sure they're making healthy choices that protect their bodies from illnesses and conditions caused by poor lifestyle choices.

Here are several tips to pass on to your kids so they can make healthier choices even when you're not around.

1. Washing hands is important: Make sure kids understand the importance of proper hand-washing techniques – including when exactly they need to lather up. Most kids know to wash up after using the restroom facilities, but may not realize that it's also important after participating in group activities where shared equipment is used, such as cooking projects or art class. Teaching them to wash their hands after these events can reduce their risk of contracting a cold, the flu and other illnesses – and prevent them from bringing it home.

2. Eating healthy foods makes you feel better: Many kids, when left to their own devices, would choose to chow down on junk food all day long. It's fast, convenient and, to a child's palate, delicious. However, sugar-loaded foods will actually sap energy from your child after that initial spike, and leave him feeling hungrier throughout the day. Your best bet is to send him to school with a healthy packed lunch rather than cash, which will inevitably be spent on fatty, greasy foods like pizza and french fries. If that's not a possibility, however, make sure your child understands that, while these foods are all right once in a while, he should be opting for fruit-and-veggie based foods on a more regular basis.

3. Using tissues helps to contain germs: With cold and flu season swinging into full gear, it's important your kids know how to safely interact with other children – and this should include using tissues whenever a child coughs or sneezes. Additionally, teaching children to cough or sneeze into their elbows rather than their palms can keep hands free from germs, making them less likely to spread.

4. Exercising each day boosts immunity: Kids today don't get enough exercise, which is one reason why more American children are being diagnosed as obese. Apart from keeping weight down, however, regular exercise has a host of other benefits – including elevating mood and strengthening the immune system. Kids who exercise regularly will be healthier overall – and will be better able to focus their energy in other places, such as their schoolwork.

5. Participating in extracurricular activities helps build social skills: While it may seem obvious, participating in after-school activities can help children learn basic social skills and make new friends, which will in turn make them happier. It's important that your child chooses an activity he or she enjoys in order to reap the full benefit – but having an activity separate from both the classroom and the home can facilitate his or her development.

Teach your children these simple lessons in order to equip them with the best decision-making tools. Kids who understand how to make good choices even when Mom or Dad isn't around will be healthier and happier. In the event your child does get sick, however, FLAVORx can provide medicine flavorings to help make taking their medicine more pleasant.