Chennai: Parents restrict children's food and play on fear of illnesses

Chennai: As much as 70 per cent of the parents in Chennai are forced to restrict their children either from eating the food they like or playing outside because of the fear of their falling ill, revealed a recent survey by Kantar IMRB across eight major cities in India.

“Based on the illness index observed among children in Chennai, 62% of them fall ill at least once in every 3 months, forcing parents to prevent their children from consuming ice-creams, chocolates, pastries, cold drinks etc. due to fear of their catching cold and cough. It was also observed that, parents restrict their children from playing outdoors due to pollution, in fear of triggering an allergy and at times preventing them from playing with other children in fear of catching infections”, the survey revealed.

The survey further highlights that 42 per cent of the children miss school for less than 10 days due to illness and 25 per cent kids miss school between 10-15 days. The most common ailments include cough and cold and Chennai also witnesses a high number of respiratory tract infections, skin related issues and allergies.