Growing Up Healthy

The pandemic of 2020 has changed our lives, but it’s not the first time Canadians have been hit by disease.

The good news is that we’ve always come up with a treatment or cure to stop things that used to cause terrible conditions from whooping cough to polio. We’re also lucky now to have hospitals that are just for kids and to have healthy food available.

We’ve changed some of our stranger ideas about our health, and no longer hold fly-killing contests like cities did a century ago.

In Canada, we also have a program to ensure everyone can afford medical care, thanks to Saskatchewan’s Tommy Douglas and his own problems as a boy. And although it’s hard to imagine now, lots of kids used to drown before swimming lessons were as common as they are now.

You, too, are living through health care history. What do you think you’ll remember about COVID-19 and how we handled it? But despite the pandemic, Canadian kids are growing up healthier than ever before — learn all about it in the September issue of Kayak!