Putting on 18 kilos in under three years and fighting three major infections, including a bout of COVID-19, can take a toll on any child. It admittedly had the parents of a 12-year-old Mumbai kid, worried sick. The boy had been recovering from a more life-threatening respiratory pneumonia condition, when the pandemic hit in March 2020. “When he first fell ill in September 2019, he was on the ventilator, but with the help of our doctor and the staff at the [NH SRCC Children’s] hospital, he slowly recovered. To aid his recovery, he had been put on steroids, but we were told that the side-effects, if any, would resolve once he followed a more active lifestyle,” his father, requesting anonymity, tells mid-day.  

The boy had just started feeling better, when the first lockdown was announced. “Schools were shut indefinitely, and all his outdoor activities, including swimming, had stopped. He couldn’t go out and play with his friends in the building due to the strict quarantine rules. At the time, we noticed him suddenly put on a lot of weight,” his father remembers. The boy’s mother adds, “Since we are a Gujarati family, we enjoy a sweet treat with every meal. His paediatrician had warned that the medicines would cause weight gain, but we didn’t expect it to be so drastic.” By the end of 2020, their son had gained 10 kilos, and this was also affecting his self-confidence. The following year, he picked up COVID and later, typhoid, which again required hospitalisation. There was really no room for him to get back to rigorous physical activity.