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American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends that children watch less than two hours of TV every day. If there are still 24 hours in a day, I think this is comical. If kids are in school for most of the day, how can they possibly watch more than 2 hours of TV unless they don’t have any after school activity or play date at a friends house OR do any sort of reading OR any assigned homework.
There aren’t enough hours in the day! Unless, of course, you cut back on how much they sleep – yes! That’s how we adults tend to get more done in the day, isn’t it? This is also a comical idea, because we know the harmful health effects of less than optimal sleep on growing kids.
So I’d like to point out a recent study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting.
This study looked at kindergartners and first graders and divided them into groups based o how much TV they watched daily: less than an hour a day, 1-2 hours a day, and 2 or more hours a day. Not surprisingly, the study found a strong link between hours spent watching TV and overweight kids. It also found a link between the hours of TV watched and obesity.
What may be surprising to most is the amount of TV that was linked to weight gain. Compared with kids who watched less than one hour of TV a day, the kids who watched one hour of TV a day were 50% more likely to be overweight! And as much as 73% more likely to be obese! Again, these were not kids watching 3 hours of TV a day!
Our current surveys suggest that the average American child watches – ready for this – 3 hours and 18 minutes of TV a day!!! IF we go back to thinking of a day as having 24 hours, when the heck are they watching all of this TV if they go to school? They must be watching while they play, watching while they eat dinner or snacks, and even watching while they complete any homework assignments.
Over 3 hours is ridiculous, and it means that no one is listening to the Academy of Pediatrics recommendation of less than 2 hours anyway.
Looking at this most recent study, it is clear that we are setting our kids up for health problems. Of course it’s easy to let your kids sit in front of the TV. IF you are working and your kids are home with a sitter, it may be hard to enforce rules.
If our kids are used to watching a lot of TV each day (which we know they are!) then it is going to be a struggle to get them used to do other things without the TV as a crutch. It is NOT impossible; it’s just hard! The sooner we start, the better. We are raising a new generation of inactive people that, despite all of our healthcare advances, will be at a big disadvantage because they are overweight and inactive!
Don’t rely on Academy recommendations because they aren’t up to date with reality. Don’t rely on your pediatrician to discuss weight and your child, because they simply don’t have the time to discuss a complex issue like this in just one annual visit. What do you think your child needs more of? Fresh air? Creative play time? Unscheduled time to do anything they like that doesn’t involve staring at the tube?
Go with your instincts and try to encourage anything but TV watching! If it’s one of those weeks where you as a parent are over-scheduled, then just unplug the TV and tell them “No TV until the weekend. Find something else to do.” They won’t be happy, they won’t go without a fight, but they will be forced to find something else to do!! It’s easier said than done, but it’s our kids’ life we are talking about. No one said it would be easy.
