66% Of Parents Believe In Homemade Immunity-boosting Recipes: Reports

Ryan International Group of Institutions had kick-started a month-long social media campaign on Child Nutrition earlier this month. The initiative curated diverse children's health and nutrition-centric activities that enabled the parents to understand the importance and key dynamics of children's nutrition and also equipped them with essential information on immunity-boosting factors. An informative and interesting nationwide survey on children's nutrition and immunity-boosting diet was the final leg of the campaign that surveyed close to 14000 parents of children from the age group of 3 to 18 years.   

Some of the key insights observed via the survey are as follows:  

· 90% of parents believe that their child’s immunity has not been hampered due to pandemic stress. 

· 19.81% of parents feel that their child has low immunity levels as compared to 80.19% of parents who are confident about their child having a good immunity system.  

· 78.50% of parents do not consult a professional nutritionist while 21.50% of parents resort to professional guidance to plan their child’s immunity-boosting diet.  

· 76.28% of parents believe in self-research to identify immunity-boosting ingredients to be incorporated into their child’s daily diet.  

· 81.35% of parents have proactively worked towards further boosting their child’s immunity as the schools prepare to reopen. 

· 33.97% of parents rely on immunity-boosting supplements for their child and 20.32% of these parents have sought professional advice for these supplements. 

· 66.69% of parents rely on homemade immunity-boosting recipes to boost their child’s immunity. 

· Majority of the parents have included fruits and protein-rich food in their child’s diet and considerably reduced junk food from their children's diet amidst the pandemic scenario.   

· Parents point out that seasonal ailments are the major indicators of their child’s immunity system. 

Commenting on the outcome of the survey, Madam Grace Pinto, Managing Director, Ryan Group of Institutions said, “At the outset, we acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ for the nutritious food He has blessed us with, to nourish ourselves.  As we are going through these challenging times of the pandemic, the parents need to take the utmost care and ensure stronger immunity in children through nutritious food.  Also post lockdown, when the schools will resume, exposing children to routine activities in different situations and environments, it will be highly important that children have a strong immunity level to support this sudden lifestyle change. We, therefore, urge our parents to pay attention to provide nutritious food to children to boost their immunity." 

Shonali Sabherwal, India's leading macrobiotic nutritionist also commented, “While parents are smarter in strengthening their child's immunity in the current scenario, extra attention must be paid to examine the quality of foods in terms of 'nutritional quotient' and 'nutritional value' to increase immunity. Children are also coming out of the pandemic being sheltered and will get more exposed to each other, and this means a greater chance of something affecting them.” 

As a part of Ryan International’s Child Nutrition Campaign 2020, Shonali had also conducted a live online session for kids and parents to make them understand the importance of strong immunity in these difficult times.