Your Child's Health/Family Life/TV or No TV?

If your children spend a lot of their time parked in front of the television, do they face a higher risk of obesity? “Absolutely,” says Dr. Janet Squires, director of the clinical service of general pediatrics at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. “Cutting back on TV-watching – plus more exercise – could have a significant impact on obesity.”

While television is a wonderful invention, Dr. Squires says, too much also can affect concentration and mental persistence. “Research has shown that kids who are heavily into TV have a shorter attention span and less self-control,” she says. “Lack of appropriate exercise and frequent munching on snack foods are associated with prolonged TV watching, and both are major risk factors for a lifetime of obesity.”

But how much TV is too much?

Photo of two girls watching tv Dr. Dorothy G. Singer, co-founder of the Family Television Research and Consultation Center at Yale University, says studies indicate that children in general are watching TV an average of about six hours daily. “That’s obviously too much,” she says. “For preschoolers, an hour and a half (per day) would be plenty. Older children might be able to watch TV for two hours or so, without adverse effects.”

Dr. Squires adds that most experts do not think that children under the age of 2 benefit at all from watching TV, and that recent studies show that human interaction is crucial for brain development in the early years of life.

Most experts believe that parents should establish household rules designed to regulate TV-watching. Among the guidelines: doing school assignments and eating dinner at the table away from the TV.

Above all, Dr. Squires says, don’t use TV as a baby sitter. “My message is to interact with your children, respect them, value them ... but most important of all, get down there on the floor and play with them,” she says.

TV statistics

Weekly TV viewing time for white teens averages 14 hours for boys and 12 hours for girls, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Among black teens, viewing averages 21 hours for boys and 20 hours for girls; among Hispanics, 17 hours for boys and 15 hours for girls.

Twenty-five percent of U.S. kids are at least 20 percent over their appropriate weight, say experts. Researchers place much of the blame on TV and fast food.

Boys and girls who watch four or more hours of TV daily had greater body fat and body mass index than those who watched less than two hours a day, The Journal of the American Medical Association reports.