HealthLink BC

Healthy Eating for Infants and Children

Healthy eating is important to your child's growth and development. Their healthy eating guidelines can help you make healthy choices and model healthy behaviours for your child. Topics include breastfeeding, formula feeding, food allergies, and more!

HealthLink BC

Dietitian Services

HealthLink’s registered dietitians offer phone, email and web-based based food and nutrition services to support the information, education and counselling needs of families. They can help with issues like nutrition concerns, feeding problems, and picky eating.

Appetite to Play

Appetite to Play supports early years providers to promote and encourage physical activity and healthy eating. They also have food literacy resources for families including eating well on a limited income, and making sure children get enough nutrients and fat!

HealthyFamilies BC

Shopping Sense

Shopping Senses’ 3-step strategy – Get Organized, Plan Ahead, and Make a List – is designed to put you in the driver’s seat so that you have everything you need to take the chore out of meal preparation. Takes you through a virtual grocery store exploration!

HealthLink BC

Time for Bed

Just like adults, children need their sleep. When they do not sleep well, they can feel unhappy or frustrated. They may cry a lot and nothing seems to satisfy them for long. Getting enough sleep can also be a concern for parents. Over time, babies gradually sleep longer during the night. This resource provides information getting your baby or toddler to sleep, safety, and sleep habits.

HealthLink BC

Sleep: Helping Your Children, and Yourself, Sleep Well

Children of all ages need plenty of sleep to grow and develop. Children's sleep problems can cause stress for parents, who may worry about their children. Parents also may be awake much of the night trying to get a child back to sleep. Their own lack of sleep can affect parents' focus at work or in school. Find information about helping your baby, child, teen, and yourself sleep well!

Anxiety Canada

Happy Home

Like adults, anxious children and teens prefer to have a sense of control in their lives. They do not cope well with a disorganized, “spontaneous” family style. They feel calmer when life is predictable, expectations are clear, consequences are immediate and consistent.

Two ways to help make life more predictable for everyone in the family are setting limits and creating routines.

HealthyFamilies BC

Family Routines

Routines are how families organize themselves to get things done, spend time together and have fun. Every family has its own unique routines. Routines help family members know who should do what, when, and how often. Maintaining normal daily routines as much as possible can make it easier for children to deal with stressful events.

Ministry of Education

Let’s Play! Activities for Families

These are activities for children and caregivers to play and learn together. A number of options for how to engage with activities are described, or you can adapt as you need. The activities are intended to create experiences that offer quality engagement within families This engagement enhances healthy social and emotional development in children

Ministry of Education

Play Today

The experiences of children’s play have a profound impact on all areas of their growth and development. The Play Today B.C. Handbook is a guide to support high quality, play-based learning experiences in the early years, primary grades, and even into the middle years of childhood.

Canadian Public Health Association

Unstructured Play

The Canadian Public Health Association led a project on the importance of unstructured play, or play where children follow their own ideas without a defined purpose or outcome. 

Canadian Tire Jumpstart

Financial assistance is available for children ages 4 – 18 years in eligible activities. For more information contact Canadian Tire Jumpstart or your local recreation centre.

BC Healthy Kids Program

This program helps low income families with the costs of basic dental care, hearing support, and prescription eye wear for their children (under the age of 19).

Before beginning treatment, confirm that the dentist or optical provider offers services under the BC Healthy Kids program AND see if there will be additional charges over what the BC Healthy Kids program will cover. 

If a family has been approved for MSP premium assistance, they are automatically eligible for Healthy Kids. If you need to apply for Premium Assistance, call 604-683-7151 or toll free at: 1-800-663-7100.

If you have questions about your child’s teeth and your child is under the age of 6, you may want to contact the Community Dental Hygienist.

HealthLinkBC

Nurse or Pharmacist Support

By calling 8-1-1 you can speak to a health services representative, who can connect you with a registered nurse, registered dietitian, or a pharmacist. They will help you get the information you need to manage your health concerns or those of your family. Available 24 hours.

Call to speak to a Registered Nurse 24/7 about non-emergency health concerns.

Pharmacists are available every night 5:00pm - 9:00pm.

Translation services are available on request in more than 130 languages. After dialing 8-1-1, you will be connected with an English speaking health service navigator. To get service in another language, simply state the language you are looking for (for example, say "Punjabi"), and an interpreter will join the call.

Anxiety Canada

Anxiety in Adults & Children

Anxiety Canada™ is a leader in developing free online, self-help, and evidence-based resources on anxiety for children, youth, and adults.

Stop, Breathe & Think

Emotional Wellness App for Kids

Children ages 5-10 can check in with how they are feeling and choose one of the Stop, Breathe & Think missions to help create their very own force field of calm.