HOW CAN CHILDREN DEVELOP STRONG IMMUNITY?

“Improving [levels of] education/affluence and city living all lead to a situation where parents focus on infection prevention/hygiene, etc. There is also pressure from advertising which projects dirt as ‘dangerous’,” says Dr Sridhar Kalyanasundaram, consultant neonatologist and head of department at Zulekha Hospital, Dubai.

“Compared to how we lived as children, these days, children are part of the ‘overprotective attitude’ of parents, which is the norm except maybe in non-urban areas and in large families. We are seeing an increase in allergic diseases in the past 20 years or so, mainly related to similar factors.”