Teach children how to live healthy, we owe it to them

Time was when Children’s day was celebrated with a liberal dose of candies and the like for children both at school and at home. Since 1991, the day has also been observed as World Diabetes Day.

Whoever decided to have Diabetes Day on Children’s Day appears to have been quite prescient. Today, India is the diabetes capital of the world and even our children are fast being engulfed by the avoidable lifestyle disease.

It doesn’t take an MD to understand how and why this menace entered our lives, because the fact that we lead unhealthy lifestyles today is old hat. What is new — and alarming — is that not only are we genetically passing the ill effects of our lifestyles to our children, but we are also guilty of pampering them and not taking proper care. There is hardly a parent who hasn’t fallen prey to a policy of bribing our children because we just don’t have the time to bring them up the right way, by example. Case in point: our own report today that even children now eat out at least once a day.

There is this fable about a mother who took her child to a saint and requested him to ask the tot to refrain from eating too many sweets. The saint asked the duo to come back after a few days, when he explained to the child the harm of eating sweets in excess and asked him to refrain. The thankful mother asked the saint why he did not do this earlier. ‘At that time even I was guilty of having a sweet tooth. How could I have advised the child then?
Only if we adults take our health seriously and lead by example will our children learn to lead healthy lives. We owe it to them.