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.

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.

Today, Sakshi and Kinshuk meet Kunal Kanwar, who is an ICC LEVEL 2 Cricket coach! That is a BIG DEAL guys! 
Kunal has over a decade of experience in sports education and is the founder and director of TUG sports, a premier sports coaching academy based in Noida. 

We discuss many things - including, when should parents decide to go with professional coaching, why do kids drop out of sports, how should one see the utility of sports in a child's life - and many more! 

What are the developmental milestones in children - and when do you need to worry? What signs should you be watchful of as a parent? What are the common myths surrounding developmental disorders? What kind of assessments do parents need to know about?
Heavy questions right? That's what we thought.
Knowledge is the best way to fight parenting challenges. In this episode, we are joined by our guest, Dr. Sakshi Mehrotra, who answers our questions patiently, and with utmost sensitivity. Dr. Sakshi Mehrotra is a Counselling Psychologist and NLP Practitioner, with more than 17 years of experience in psychological health and wellness, training, assessment and consultancy. Member of prestigious international bodies like American Psychological Association, she is also the founder of Mindlogs Psychology Services, a psychological counselling, training and consultancy firm.
The discussion is moderated by Sakshi Verma, a seasoned media professional and a mother, and Kinshuk Mishra, cofounder of Awenest. 

Awenest Parent Podcast is an initiative by Awenest, the toxin-free baby care brand, to make parenting easy and informed. 

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!

Follow awenest here - Instagram handle

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.

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 Dr. Ashvith Shetty, a reputed Dermatologist and Cosmetologist. Dr. Ashvith also gives a mother's perspective on childrens' skin care routines.

Parents worry about every aspect of their kids' wellbeing, skin care being a big part of it. Today we break some myths about skin care with insightful discussions and practical suggestions tailored to Indian parents.

Follow awenest here - Instagram handle

Follow Dr. Ashvith here - Instagram handle

 In this episode, Tania and Kinshuk meet Swapnil Shrivastav. He is the founder and CEO of Uravu labs, a company working on extracting water from air.

Water from thin air - wouldn't that be something? Swapnil explains in meticulous detail the technology, its benefits and applications. 

Today the Sustainably Yours team speaks to Nikit on the usage of satellite data for making the world a sustainable place.
Nikit is the founder of Tathya.Earth - a start up focusing on the real time monitoring of global supply chain and its impact on the environment. 

What will you learn from this episode? 

How is satellite data important and what are the potential applications? 
How is Tathya.Earth using the data to make accurate observations? 
What more is happening in the satellite data space in India? 
.. and a lot more!

Today we speak to Gayatri Joshi, founder of EcoSansar, an online zerowaste store which has the convenience of a ecommerce store 'packed'  with the goodness of zero waste. Active in Bangalore, and having a very loyal base of customers, EcoSansar promises to take back all the packaging for refill and resupply. 

As the hosts of this episode (Both Kinshuk and Tania) have been grocery retailers as some point in their lives, this show is of remarkable value - as we dig deep into - 

Gayatri's motivations for starting ecosansar
Her mantra for zero-waste living 
Core values of EcoSansar

And if you hang around till the end, she gives some easy tips on how to start a zero-waste life.