Your cover story listing ways and means to boost child immunity was well-researched (PW February). Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic out of the blue hit humankind last year, prescriptions to build bodily immunity have suddenly become aplenty and trendy. Nevertheless, your suggestions from child health experts were very balanced and holistic.

Also fortunately, traditional Indian cuisine uses a lot of ingredients such as turmeric and ginger which are natural immunity boosters. Indian mothers also believe in breastfeeding infants for at least the first year unlike Western counterparts. Maybe these are factors that have enabled India to manage the pandemic better.

Sunania Sengupta
Kolkata
Inspiring reading list

Thank you for the delightful children’s reading list celebrating the first Indian-American woman vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris. It was a revelation that four children’s picture books have been written tracing Harris’ amazing trajectory to the vice presidency of the US. Reading these biographies will inspire children to aim for the stars.

Please continue to recommend historical biographies for children as real life stories of extraordinary people can be highly motivational for young children.

Lucky Patel
Gurguram

Teach children empathy

My children enjoy reading PW Kidzone. They especially loved the recent Idea Box feature wherein you have suggested the many ways children can make a difference to society.

Apart from the birthday celebration suggestion of children visiting an orphanage, I really liked this advice: “Be alert to people in need. It could be your classmate struggling with maths, an aged neighbor who needs help with her groceries.” Children need to be taught empathy and kindness from young age. Parents need to make a conscious effort to inculcate these values in children.

In light of the devastation to lives and livelihoods caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s become critical to encourage children to reach out and help people in need in any way they can — financially or emotionally.

Brinda Jaiprakash
Kochi

Wasted year

As we look back at the past year, so many opportunities to learn, meet people, explore life, have been lost. New avenues have opened up online, but I feel we have lost a full year and missed out on making wonderful memories. Now we need to focus on how to move forward. As schools reopen, teachers need to focus less on academics and more on helping children get rid of the fear psychosis the pandemic has aroused.

Work from home and online school are far less effective for a majority of adults and children. While parents are crumbling under the stress of managing households and children’s online classes, children are losing the discipline of following daily study, sleep and meal routines.

Shifa Mustafa
Bengaluru

Sleep & exercise

Thank you for a very informative and timely cover story ‘6 ways and means to boost child immunity’ (PW February). The authors have rightly advised parents to follow a holistic approach to boosting child immunity rather than rely on health and immunity supplements. There is no alternative to healthy and nutritious diets, good sleep and exercise.
I recently read an interesting news report about how good bodily immunity enhances the performance of the Covid-19 vaccine. Research studies indicate that high immunity levels optimise the human body’s response to a vaccine. Sleep and exercise also reportedly enable people to acquire a better response to the vaccine.

In other words, the vaccine is more effective in those who get adequate sleep and exercise. The same news report quoted another study on the flu vaccine that found that it was more effective in people who got sufficient sleep two nights before receiving the shot. So in addition to providing healthy diets, we need to focus on ensuring children get adequate sleep and exercise.

Preethi Ashok
Chennai