when it rains children today are more likely to run for cover than play outside drinking from the tap is a strict nono and street food is offlimits for many even playing in the mud or under the sun are recreations that many have been told are unhealthy compared to earlier generations who may not have thought twice about the impact of pollution sun or rain to go out and play children today seem to be growing up with a more cautious outlooka recent imrb survey to understand health issues among children has revealed that 70 of parents in chennai restrict children either from eating food they like or playing outside for the fear of diseases the survey reveals that 70 children in chennai face recurrentallergic cold and cough while 68 miss school once every three months due to sickness this forces parents to prevent their children from consuming cold desserts pastries and fast food the survey was conducted across eight cities in india with a sample size of 1617 parent respondents with children in the age group of two10 years the most common ailments children suffer from are cough and cold that account for 70 followed by fever with 66 the city also witnesses respiratory tract infection as high as 26 as well as skinrelated issues 27 many of these are related to low immunity issuesmalathi of aurro educational services which deals with schools across the country said that there seems to be hype about certain practices which are promoted through advertising and media children are taught to drink only from bottled water today when we were kids we drank water and ate food everywhere and built our immunity hygiene should be observed but at the same time a balance must be maintained in what we are telling our childrenparents also restrict their children from playing outdoors or with other children in the fear of them contracting allergies or infection due to pollution at a school in coimbatore a group of girls told me that their parents didnt want them to be tanned in the sun and thus had asked school authorities to excuse them from playing outside with decreasing levels of physical activity we are only producing lazier generations ahead she added according to an edusports 2016 survey the percentage of children with unhealthy bmi has increased from 20 the previous year to 33psychologist sridhar murthy said that while certain basic precautions can be taken a sanitised atmosphere for children will be unhealthy children should be allowed to explore when they can rather than worrying about what to eat or where to play he said