Are today’s children less healthy than before?

As a society, we like to believe that each generation will be better off than the last. That optimism keeps us moving forward. But if we pause for a moment, do a few things feel less reassuring than we’d like them to be?

Take the rise in allergies among children. Is it simply better diagnosis and greater awareness, or are kids genuinely being exposed to more irritants than ever before? And what about mental health? When millennials say “in our time,” is it nostalgia speaking or are today’s children facing pressures that are fundamentally different? Is this generation becoming softer, or are they navigating a world that’s objectively more complex?

These questions stayed with us.Who better to turn to than Dr. Sivaranjani Santosh. Dr Santosh is a pediatrician and a social activist who has taken up the cause of authenticity and transparency in child care extremely strongly. The host team is led by Sakshi Verma, a media veteran and a concerned parent, and joined by Kinshuk Mishra, cofounder, awenest and a father of a new born.

Today Sakshi and I meet Falguni, the founder of OliveNutrition24 who breaks down this complicated and emotional topic of feeding kids and babies. What is the right way to introduce your baby to new food? Screen time during eating, yay or nay? How does our food behaviour impact your child? (Do you now need to fake-like karela?) All this and a lot more - in sharp 30 min covering some extremely interesting and relevant questions.

awenest Parent Podcast is brought to you by awenest baby, the 100% plant-based baby care brand.

Kinshuk and Sakshi kick off the show with Nidhi Sudhan, a responsible tech & media advocate. Nidhi cofounded Citizen Digital Foundation in 2021 to foster Information Literacy and Responsible Innovation.

Screentime for kids is something that every parent universally worries about - how much, from what age, what type? Answers to all these questions are provided by Nidhi in today's episode! A must-listen for every parent!

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Resources for parents and children recommended by our guest Nidhi Sudhan:

Guidelines On Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour And Sleep For Children Under 5 Years Of Age - WHO

https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/311664/9789241550536-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

The Anxious Generation (book by Jonathan Haidt):

https://www.anxiousgeneration.com

The Sapien Labs ‘Age of First Smartphone Use and MHQ’ study:
https://sapienlabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Sapien-Labs-Age-of-First-Smartphone-and-Mental-Wellbeing-Outcomes.pdf

Remove explicit images online

https://takeitdown.ncmec.org

Know the nutrition level of popular social apps

https://technutrition.org

Common Sense Media (most recommended globally for parents)

https://www.commonsensemedia.org

Children and Screens

https://www.childrenandscreens.com

CDF toolkits and resources for parents and students (several resources for parents’ various requirements)

https://citizendigitalfoundation.org/publications/

Understanding Sextortion: No escape room – NCMEC

https://noescaperoom.org

Toolkit to fight sextortion by Social Media Matters - India

https://www.socialmediamatters.in/online-safety-hub/toolkit-against-sextortion

Google Interland - Game for children to become smarter online

https://beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/en_us/interland/

How to be a good digital parent toolkit & videos

https://www.fosi.org/how-to-be-good-digital-parent#toolkit-form

Making news and reading fun for children (paid)

https://www.newsahoot.com

On all CDF paid content, use code CDFGTS to get 15% off.