Kids' Rooms No Place For T.V.
0 Comments Published by Admin aka Mimin on Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 4:12 PM.
Here’s a simple step parents can take to lower their child’s risk of obesity: Keep the television out of the child’s bedroom.
A new study suggests that children aged one to five years who have televisions in their bedrooms watch nearly five hours more TV and videos each week than children without TV sets in their rooms. These children are also more likely to be overweight.
Parents and guardians of more than 2,700 children from 49 New York state agencies of the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children were surveyed about their TV/video viewing habits. Each child’s BMI was also measured.
Nearly 40 percent of those surveyed reported having a television set in their bedroom, which raised their risk of being overweight by nearly one-third.
These results are consistent with previous studies of older children, indicating that increases in BMI often coincide with increases in the number of hours spent in front of the TV.
''Because most children watch TV by age 2, educational efforts about limiting child TV/video viewing and keeping TV out of the child’s bedroom need to begin before then,'' writes Barbara Dennison, M.D., lead researcher, in her report, published in the June 2002 issue of Pediatrics.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children’s total media time be limited to one to two hours per day.
Source: Pediatrics, 2002; 109, 6, 1028-1035
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