Orthodox pediatrician. Children and Orthodox Lent. – How does a modern school affect a child’s health?

The vaccination business is about 200 years old, and it arose in dramatic circumstances. Infectious diseases were the leading cause of death. Periodically, the planet was shaken by epidemics. The best minds of humanity tried to explain the nature of infectious diseases and prevent them. In the 19th century this problem was brilliantly solved. Plague, cholera, typhus, anthrax, and smallpox disappeared with the introduction of quarantine, disinfection, construction of water pipelines and water purification systems, installation of sewer systems and sanitary education of the population. It is difficult to say what role vaccination played in this. An unbiased reader has little faith in the fact that smallpox was defeated by vaccinations, and other infections were so frightened that they went away on their own.

Today infectious diseases occupy a very modest place in the list of causes of death. But the hopes of our ancestors that victory over infections would give a person the opportunity to live happily ever after did not come true. Other diseases plague humanity and mercilessly shorten the lives of individuals. Cardiovascular, oncological, autoimmune diseases, AIDS (ranked 4th in the US), diabetes (ranked 7th in the US). And here is a new WHO forecast: in 20-30 years, severe allergy attacks will top the list of all causes of sudden death.

All this means that humanity in the 21st century has a new problem in first place. This is an immunity problem. After all, for oncological diseases The immune system is responsible, which rejects the resulting defective cells, including cancer cells.

So, a new round of dramatic human history. Let us, in imitation of our ancestors, solve the main problem - how to protect and cherish, from what to protect our delicate immunity. This is what the whole place and everyone needs to think about on their own: how to protect immune system our children, so that our family continues, how to save our lives from a new plague, from a new insidious misfortune?

Where are you, the best minds of humanity? Alas, minds... are thinking about something completely different. They are stuck between the last century and the century before last, they are still fighting with microbes, and in the absence of plague and cholera - with tiny, safe and harmless microbes and microbes, which in their birth did not harm humanity in any noticeable way. The best medical minds are busy trying to protect the unfortunate population of the planet from rubella, chickenpox, mumps, measles, and flu - so busy and so preoccupied that they have no time to face the new reality. This reality is before the eyes of any medical director and is called the “List of Causes of Death.” Everything would not be so scary if this fight against microbes was carried out outside human body! Alas... Top medical minds are fighting infections in the territory of our bodies, testing the limits of our immunity’s patience more and more often.

New and new vaccines are produced by certain concerns and introduced into our vaccination calendars, as if the problem of immunity does not exist at all. An infant under one year of age is infected 9 times with weakened but live viruses and bacteria or killed but antigenically active ones. After a year, a little less often, but with the same persistence.

The statistics of childhood leukemia, childhood diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, bronchial asthma. Terrible, incurable diseases that were unheard of in young people twenty years ago are becoming younger - parkinsonism, multiple sclerosis and many others. All these diseases differ from measles and rubella in that they inevitably lead to premature death, sharply undermine the quality of life, require severe and expensive treatment, which does not lead to recovery, but only maintains the existence of the body.

Fewer and fewer healthy children are being born in the country. Instead of rejoicing in the healthy few and cherishing the rest, we mercilessly infect both at a very tender age for the sake of someone’s ambitions - to defeat such and such a disease on the planet by such and such a year. We are trying to displace the harmless rubella and measles, but instead HIV, the SARS virus, and bird flu appear.

Not every pediatrician has the happiness of observing the development of children who have not had a single vaccination. Until the age of 16, they suffer no more than two or three childhood infections, moreover, easily and without complications. They rarely get sick and have no chronic diseases, hardy to physical activity and are successful in learning and creativity. I’m not afraid to say that they are recognizable on the street, especially the kids - they have a fresh look, a healthy glow, and no signs of allergies on their faces. The arguments of their parents are different - “they suffered with the eldest, they decided not to vaccinate the second,” “they read the literature,” and even “we ourselves are doctors (biologists, livestock breeders ...).” I’ve never heard the opposite: “we suffered from infections in the eldest, we diligently vaccinate the younger ones”!

And speaking of livestock breeders. I read in Expert magazine huge article about Igor Babaev, a prosperous businessman, supplier of pork to the Cherkizovsky meat processing plant. Those whose opinions about vaccinations are absolutely unbiased, and therefore interesting to us. It turns out that at the beginning of his career he went broke while reviving multi-storey Soviet pig farms. If it was impossible to comply with strict sanitary and epidemiological regulations on such giants, he had to “vaccinate the pigs to the ears,” as a result of which their meat became TASTELESS! Dear reader! I will not impose my conclusions on this matter; I invite you to think about it at your leisure.

Pediatrician-homeopathic doctor
Kaliteevskaya Olga Igorevna.
Saint Petersburg

All believers perceive Lent as a very important period of time, during which one has to adhere to strict rules in food. During fasting, in a poetic word, it is as if you have to unfold your two wings, one of which is restriction, the other is prayer. Even doctors are ready to perceive such a “duet” as a way of true healing of soul and body.

Lent is considered the most strict and significant of all established fasts. On all days of fasting, it is forbidden to smoke and drink alcoholic beverages, and to eat fast food. The purpose of fasting is to remove a person from evil, curb the tongue, put aside anger, tame lust, stop slander, perjury and lies. This is what we have to strive for by any means. Otherwise, fasting remains just another diet, and nothing more. So you need to change the degree of tension in your spiritual life. As a result, there is a chance to become cleaner.

How to start a post correctly

Approach the post wisely. It would be a mistake to just limit yourself to everything one day. Lenten dishes, this will become a big stress for the body. Doctors say that in this case there is a chance of catching the virus or getting an exacerbation of the disease gastrointestinal tract. It’s better to enter the post smoothly. At the first stage, you should give up fatty foods - meat (beef, pork, lamb), mayonnaise and fatty fish. Next - from eggs and milk.

It is worth giving up fatty meat, sausages, alcohol, rich bread, sweets, buns, mayonnaise. In this case, fasting will benefit the body and relieve the workload of the liver. Meanwhile, doctors believe that it would be a mistake to deprive yourself of beneficial microorganisms and a source of protein (fermented milk products, for example). According to doctors, it would be worth leaving turkey, chicken, sea fish and a rabbit.

Limits must be reasonable

If the decision is made to fast full program, it is imperative to eat nuts (up to twenty pieces per day), as well as legume dishes. This will make up for the protein deficiency in the body. The theory of a gentle approach to food restriction is shared by many doctors. Each applicant should approach the restrictions responsibly. It’s worth thinking more than once: whether fasting will be harmful to your health, whether you have enough strength – physical and moral. It is worth remembering: a person who deliberately harms his health commits a great sin.

Who Shouldn't Fast

You should not join the post:

to kid;
an elderly person;
pregnant women and those who are planning a pregnancy;
those who have been sick recently;
a patient with a chronic disease;
persons engaged in mental or heavy physical labor.

Psychotherapists suggest making fasting time a time to work on yourself, you can start by:

change your expectations, get as close to real possibilities another person - your loved ones;
admit the fact of the offense - this will weaken the offense and allow the emotion to fade away;
try to figure out what bothers you - they don’t offend us, we offend ourselves;
try to scan your offender - you are surrounded by living people, so you should be more lenient;
learn to forgive;
give free rein to your emotions.

No need to accumulate grievances
Don't think about grievances at night.
You should not sort things out until you are sure that they are ready to listen to you.
Do not forgive your enemy by force (you need internal willingness to do this).

- Larisa Nikolaevna! In other Orthodox brochures and on the Internet you can read that you don’t need to listen to nutritionists, they say, they don’t understand spiritual life and have a bad attitude towards fasting. You are a nutritionist with extensive experience. How do you feel about the post?

— I don’t know a single colleague of mine who would have a bad attitude towards the post, claiming that it is harmful. Fasting is useful, but a thoughtless attitude towards it is harmful, when a person neglects his health, completely forgetting that doctors were given to him by God and it is useful to listen to their advice.

For example, on the eve of Lent, a woman came to see her with serious digestive problems. “To prevent the disease from worsening, you should not exclude dairy, talk about this with your confessor,” I give her advice. The answer was categorical: “No! I won’t eat anything at all for the whole week!”

I do not undertake to evaluate ascetic feats healthy people. But if the patient has liver problems or cholelithiasis, then refusing to eat and drink can provoke an attack of cholecystitis or cholelithiasis. What is the use of unreasonable “asceticism” if the patient eventually develops hepatic colic, if she deprives herself of the strength for a normal life, or even ends up in a hospital bed? I had a case when a patient suffering from diabetes did not tell the priest about her illness, about the doctor’s instructions not to exclude protein foods, and asked for blessings for the strictest fast. And it turns out that a diabetic, for whom carbohydrates are prohibited, eats only bread and potatoes during Lent, which are categorically contraindicated for him. A person’s sugar levels go through the roof, he is cut off from normal life, and often he can no longer pray. He could simply die from a coma. And then the murmur began... Or take the case when, before my eyes, a high school girl fainted several times in church - before communion she “fasted” for several days on water and prosphora.

It is precisely this kind of jealousy that the priest of the Church of the Nativity of Christ in Obninsk, Fr., speaks of beyond reason. Vladimir Voitov: “I know several Orthodox Christians who, during the first week, do not eat anything at all until Saturday. All week the “ascetics” have been walking around “green”, their psyche, one might say, is “at zero.” By the end of Friday they were already staggering with the wind from exhaustion... I am against this practice. According to the prediction of the ancient fathers and the general opinion of the holy fathers of recent times, extreme ascetic feats have been taken away from us, modern Orthodox Christians, due to our infection with pride. Such “extreme” feats will not benefit us, but will only feed us pride: “I’m not like everyone else!..” It’s very difficult to get rid of this feeling.”

We must always remember that the body is the temple of the soul and treat it as a temple. Imagine how chronic problems have accumulated in our body, devastation has begun: the liver is failing, the pancreas is acting up, the cardiovascular system is not normal. And all these are the fruits of our life. No one came to us from outside or forced anything bad into our mouths. The Lord does not send us illnesses just like that or, as some arrogantly think, to test our faith that we have already become ascetics. The disease appeared because you treated your body this way, ate too much sweets, carbohydrate foods, fried, smoked foods, ate yourself at night, overeated. That is, he took and destroyed his temple himself. And you don’t want to restore it.

And another problem is overeating during fasting with the same lean food. Unfortunately, almost everyone overeats. Whereas abstinence in food implies not only the refusal of modest foods.

If a person does not understand that the essence of fasting is to cultivate abstinence in everything, to get rid of excesses, then he pays the main attention to the gastronomic side. As a result, by meticulously studying product labels for the presence of powdered milk and egg powder, a person can happily enjoy “lenten” mayonnaise (which you can’t even put in your mouth, because it contains poisonous transgenic fats that are more harmful than nicotine and alcohol), depriving a growing child of a glass milk, buy him “lenten” sweets or cookies with the same transgenic fats, which are called, at first glance innocently, “vegetable margarine.” Such fat is poison for a growing body, and for any person. For an older person, there is a huge load on the pancreas, on the liver and on the same blood vessels; these fats increase cholesterol levels. So people suffering from diseases cardiovascular systems We must first give up transgenic fats.

— What is the best thing to eat during Lent? Once I happened to hear: “What’s the problem? I bought a loaf of bread, spread it with jam, and I was full.”

— And what will be the consequences of such a “sweet” fast? Sugar shock.

Yes, during Lent the temptation to eat a lot of sweets increases (Lenten jam!). But eating sweets increases the load on the pancreas. May lead to pancreatitis and diabetes mellitus. Nowadays they almost don’t remember that in the 19th century they didn’t eat sugar during Lent, they considered it savory, it was replaced with honey and dried fruits.

“Sweets give birth to passions” - this saying of our grandfathers is almost forgotten today. But in vain. It is no coincidence that voluptuousness is equated with fornication. The sweet tooth is gnawed by inner passion, he indulges in the delicacy. The culture of everyday and holiday food has been lost, and we see how more and more Orthodox Christians cannot imagine their fast without “Lenten” sweets, cakes, cookies and other “consolations”, which are supplied in abundance by efficient entrepreneurs. Under the guise of asceticism there is unconscious gluttony. We seem to be fasting, but we still find some loopholes: the products on the table are still the same - sausage, even “smoked” sausages, all sorts of delicacies, only “lean”, made from soybeans with various harmful additives. Is this a post?

- And then what to eat, how to properly organize your diet during fasting so as not to destroy your health?

- There is nothing complicated here. You just need to be aware of the structure and balance of lean foods. Most often, fasting people are overloaded with carbohydrate foods, for example, potatoes, which contain a huge amount of starch. Around February, potatoes begin to turn green; cut them or don’t cut them - they form salonin, a poison that has toxic effect on the body. There have been cases of poisoning from chips and “Moscow potatoes.”

It is best if, according to the food pyramid, the basis of nutrition is grains (buckwheat, millet, lentils, oatmeal, durum pasta). Cereals contain more vitamins that are not destroyed over time. Vegetables and fruits per day should be consumed from 3 to 5 servings - 500 g, keeping in mind that one serving is one orange or one apple. You can replace them with 200 g of dried fruits.

An excellent source of vitamin C is rosehip decoction, leafy greens, citrus fruits, everything bright yellow - tomatoes, pumpkin, bell peppers.

There should be enough protein in the diet plant origin. Nuts, seeds, beans, beans, peas, and soy provide complete proteins. Nut proteins are well balanced in essential amino acids. Every day you need to eat about 100 g of nuts (about 20 pieces), which completely satisfies the need for vegetable oil.

To avoid problems with digestive system, stagnation of bile, meals should be fractional. The liver and pancreas cannot tolerate hunger for more than 3-4 hours. It is better to stick to five meals a day - in small portions. This is the prevention of cholecystitis and cholelithiasis. Drink 1.5-2 liters of clean water per day, take a good vitamin and mineral complex.

If you need milk due to age or digestion, then drink it as medicine. Of course, this does not mean that you can eat treats made from milk, such as ice cream, with a clear conscience.

It seems to me that the most important thing to remember is that the main thing is spiritual fasting, the joy of the soul. And if you manage to become a little more tolerant of your neighbors during Lent, and at the bodily level refuse bad habits eating a lot of flour, stuffing yourself at night, overeating - this will be a small but significant victory over yourself.

I would end with the words of Abbot Alypiy (Svetlichny): “ One must fast not so much according to the Charter, but according to conscience!»

The conversation was conducted by Alla Dobrosotskikh

That's all today more people begin to fast or at least adhere to somewhat moderate views on nutrition during fasting. Is it possible for children to fast too? Is this necessary? If yes, then at what age and how to do it correctly? We decided to prepare material on this topic that may be useful to you.

In our article we will not focus on issues of religion and faith; we will only touch on nutrition issues. And a specialist from the Research Institute of Pediatrics will help us with this.

First, let's look at what fasting is? Fasting is usually thought of as abstaining from eating and drinking. Different religions prohibit the consumption of all food or certain types of food (most often meat, fish, dairy products, eggs) in different ways. But the main meaning of fasting is to cultivate the strength of the spirit, that is, fasting should contribute to the predominance in the believer of spiritual, sublime aspirations over sensual, bodily ones. Fasting often preceded major decisions and exploits, served as a means of repentance, an expression of sadness, as it helped to focus on a problem. “True fasting,” teaches St. John Chrysostom, “is removal from evil, curbing the tongue, putting aside anger, taming lusts, stopping slander, lies and perjury.” This is an opportunity to distract yourself from pleasing your body, concentrate and think about more important and meaningful things - without all this, fasting becomes just a diet.

The strictest fasts are in Orthodoxy and Islam, but in Catholicism and Anglicanism their number is insignificant. It is not known exactly when certain days of abstinence and fasting were established in Christianity. These days, as well as the regulations regulating the amount and types of permitted food, could vary in different eras. In accordance with the ancient Christian tradition, during fasting it was allowed to eat only once a day, but over time, the custom added a light evening meal, and then a small morning meal, to this single meal. In the West, on fasting days, it was mainly abstinence from meat that was prescribed; in the East, the practice of xerophagy (“dry eating”) implied a ban on eating meat, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, butter and wine.

IN modern world There is a tendency towards a gradual reduction in the number and softening of the severity of fasts and other forms of abstinence prescribed by the laws of the church. Age, health, poverty, hard or long work, and changing social conditions began to be taken into account, with the result that the church required strict fasting only from relatively narrow groups of people and exempted others. The practice of Orthodox fasting is incredibly developed - according to the traditional church Julian calendar, in some years the number of fasting days reaches two hundred. They are timed to coincide with Orthodox holidays, forming an annual liturgical circle, and are divided into multi-day and one-day ones. During fasting days, abstinence should be comprehensive: from everyday entertainment and amusements, marital relationships, drinking alcohol, violent manifestations of passions and negative emotions.

Catholic fasting has two types - abstinence from eating meat products (“abstinence”, “abstinence”) and limiting food intake during the day, when only one hearty meal and two lighter ones are allowed (“fasting”). Protestants fast when the need arises - in case of illness of the believers themselves or their loved ones, in difficult life situations, when making important decisions in life, to resolve doubts, to strengthen faith, before committing serious events in life, etc. Usually there are no fasts very long - most often no more than three days. Fasting in Islam is of two types: obligatory in the month of Ramadan (established according to Sharia in 624 and included in the obligatory canons) and recommended. During the period of fasting, Muslims daily from sunrise to sunset refuse to eat, drink, smoke, etc. But the specificity of fasting in Islam lies in the fact that it is not the composition of the food that is limited, but the time of its consumption (as in early Christianity)

In the modern world, some nations are reviving forgotten traditions, while in others, a child is raised by a family and traditions are instilled in him from birth. Many parents whose children “eat poorly”, without noticing it, overfeed them day after day. What happens? Not just loss of appetite and poor digestibility of food. The entire huge reserve of internal bodily strength is spent not on resisting diseases and the effects of external unfavorable factors, but on breaking down excessive amounts of food introduced into the stomach. Over time, the child’s body does not have time to remove the excess and self-poisoning occurs. It’s bad when they indulge the child’s whims and give him only what he loves. It is also harmful to accustom children to too sweet, tasty and refined food: it should be nutritious, but simple. Finally, as has been said many times, a child cannot be forced to eat without feeling hungry. It is correct if the child is accustomed to sit at the table with the rest of the family.

The meaning of fasting is that it educates the child’s will: it teaches him to overcome bad desires and bad habits. From the first years, the child is warned about the dangers: “You can’t take off your hat in the sun!”, “You can’t pet the cat!” At first, these prohibitions are related to protecting the life and health of the child. Later, when the child grows up, “you can’t” becomes associated with the concept of sin. Do you want to take someone else's? Hit a peer? Take a cigarette and light it? It is impossible even if no one finds out about it and punishes... In order to resist these and many other sinful desires, a child must be able to control his will. And he can learn this by humbling her in what sometimes seems like small things. First of all, in relation to food, which occupies such a significant place in our lives. Saint Theophan the Recluse says that a child who does not know the refusal of food and is accustomed in this regard to being guided only by his desires, gets used to waywardness, which, of course, will greatly complicate his future life. “A child has many desires; everything occupies him, everything attracts him and gives rise to desires. Unable to distinguish between good and evil, it desires everything and is ready to fulfill everything it desires. A child left to his own devices becomes indomitably willful. Therefore, parents must strictly observe this branch of mental activity. The simplest means of keeping it within proper limits is to instruct children not to do anything without permission.”

It can be difficult for a child to distinguish hunger from whim, especially if he has been overfed. If a child lives in an atmosphere of observing fasts, then it is easy for him to start observing them himself. For Orthodox Christians, first it is the observance of Wednesday and Friday, then long fasts, temporary refusal of certain types of food, delicacies. This amazingly disciplines the child and develops his will. When such a child goes to school, gets into a children's group and inevitably encounters sinful examples, the skill of abstinence instilled by fasting will be very useful to him.

Orthodox children usually begin observing long-term fasts at the end of their infancy period - that is, upon reaching seven years of age. It is at this age that the child first begins the sacrament of Repentance - begins to regularly confess. Fasting for a small child should also be conscious. Let it be the fruit of his childhood faith, his own desire and feat. When solving the problem of long-term fasting for a child, parents should take into account the characteristics of his physical health and psyche. It is also good if they can consult with an Orthodox doctor or an experienced priest. But in case of serious internal pathologies (especially diseases of the gastrointestinal tract), indulgences in fasting are made. In some cases, sick children may eat during fasting. dairy products, or fish, or eggs. It happens that children with chronic diseases are deprived of only meat and sweets during Lent. Some parents, when no refusal is possible, with the blessing of the priest, deprive the child of a dish that he especially loves... Children who are accustomed to one-day fasts from infancy will be more prepared for long ones that last for several weeks.

Anna Saprykina

Fasting is, of course, not a diet. This is a time of repentance and prayer. This is a kind of pause, a stop in our hectic life, when we become stricter with ourselves. Be more attentive to each other. And it’s not at all a banal replacement of a pork cutlet with potato pancakes.

Thank God they are talking about this. And Orthodox parents also discuss among themselves the problem of children's fasting. When fasting becomes a time of struggle against bad habits and inclinations, a struggle that even seven-year-old children may be capable of. In many Orthodox families, during Lent they limit watching cartoons, accessing the Internet, computer games. It’s great when children and teenagers, together with their parents, in harmony and like-mindedness, truly together, as one organism, live the life of the Church. Including on the days of the Great and Holy Pentecost.

But what about food restrictions? The spiritual component of fasting, of course, is incomparably more important than the primitive non-eating of meat. But if the “quality” and “spiritual” component of fasting is so important, then do food restrictions become unnecessary? Is this turning out to be archaic? Primitive pharisaism, which we will brand?

When it comes to children's fasting, most often two theses immediately emerge:

1. The Church intended fasting for adults, not for children;

2. Fasting is harmful to the child’s health.

To find out the position of the Church, it is worth turning to the teaching of the Holy Fathers. And in order to understand whether fasting will harm the child’s health, you need to know what kind of child we are talking about and what he is sick with, and at the same time be a doctor, preferably a good, educated and experienced doctor.

This is what the great universal teacher and saint Basil the Great says about children’s fasting:

“Fasting protects babies, chastises the young, makes the old man respectable, for gray hair, adorned by fasting, is more worthy of respect. Fasting is the most decent attire for women, a bridle in the prime of life, protection of marriage, educator of childhood. These are the services of fasting to each individual home... Let children, like flowering plants, be watered with the water of fasting.”(Basily the Great, Saint. Conversations. Conversation 2. About fasting 2nd).

And St. John Chrysostom reminds us of the inhabitants of the city of Nineveh, who, being doomed by God to death because of their sins, were pardoned because of their readiness to correct themselves and a three-day fast:

“The devil became bitter when he saw his entire army turning to God and fighting with demons, when both children and wives, young children and adults entered this fight, when dumb animals were brought into the military formation as comrades. And the devil saw a new sight: the cattle helped people in (achieving) righteousness and fasted for the salvation of their owners.”(John Chrysostom, saint. Conversation 2. About the repentance of the Ninevites).

We see that, according to the great church teacher, not only the fast of “young children” has its own meaning, its own significance, but even fasting - just think! – animals.

Elsewhere, St. John Chrysostom speaks separately about children’s fasting:

“You heard what Joel said: let the groom come out of his palace and the bride from her upper room...gather the youths and sucklings(Joel 2:16)… Since all those who have reached manhood have grieved and angered God, let him, he says, plead with the Angry One, an age that does not yet know sin.” ( John Chrysostom, saint. About statues. Conversation three)

So, for prayer and fasting it is not at all necessary to have a developed intellect or, on the contrary, to be immersed in serious, “adult” sins.

It turns out that fasting and prayer are part of the life of our Church - the entire Church, and not individual members who have reached a certain age. Fasting can benefit us all. Both monks and laity. And adults, and boys, and girls, and adolescents, and... yes, even babies.

What to do for those who are sick is, indeed, a very individual question; who can argue. Seriously ill people can be among 80-year-old nuns, and among 30-year-old men, and among five-year-old children.

But is it correct to say with confidence that restrictions on the intake of food of animal origin, like smoking or alcohol, are, by definition, harmful to the health of an infant, child, or teenager? There are doctors who are confident in the benefits of fasting - even for young children.

Thus, therapist Natalya Tarasova spoke about the benefits of children's fasting. Also, the famous Moscow pediatrician with more than 50 years of experience, Candidate of Medical Sciences A.M. Timofeeva in her book “Conversations of a Children’s Doctor” writes:

“There is an opinion that only meat products can provide everything necessary for a growing body and saturate it, that meat products are useful for both old and young, sick and healthy... But how do you eat properly? This is a very serious matter. It is necessary to take into account not only the condition environment, but also the climate, geographical position, religious views of each people. In Russia, very long breaks in eating meat have always been taken... We ate porridge, vegetables, berries, mushrooms... Isn't it worth returning to the experience of past years? Many diseases could be avoided by properly organizing nutrition.

It is useful for children to have at least two vegetarian days a week, and on the remaining days, meat dishes should be consumed no more than once a day... You will see that the intestines will begin to function normally, and such unpleasant phenomena as bloating, belching, heaviness in the right precostal area will disappear , constipation... Such nutrition will protect children from many chronic diseases of the digestive, respiratory and cardiovascular systems, and especially from allergic conditions.” ( Timofeeva A.M. Conversations with a pediatric doctor. M., 2003. pp. 92–93.)

I myself was lucky enough to communicate a lot with this doctor, and I wrote down her answers to questions about the children's post. A.M. Timofeeva talks about the age at which children can start fasting:

“During fasting, you can safely remove meat already at the age when the child begins to switch to such food. I have never seen that the lack of meat leads... to anemia, to a decrease in weight gain. If children do not eat meat during Lent, their allergies are relieved! And the digestion process is facilitated... If a child is over two years old and has any allergic manifestations, then he simply needs to remove not only meat, but also milk. You can give fish. Here you need to consult with your confessor. If he blesses me, I can easily remove the fish too - it will only benefit the baby.”

Dr. Timofeeva’s words about fasting were a guideline for several generations of Moscow Orthodox families with many children, where there was simply no quick food in the refrigerator during fasting. Except for children's kefir and unsweetened curds for babies' snacks.

However, the conversation is not about doctors.

The question is, is there any point in children's fasting? What can a tradition of periodically giving up meat and milk give to a child, a toddler, a schoolchild, or a teenager?