The relationship between the amount of television a child watches and his/her chances of being obese is well established. According to William H. Dietz, M.D., director of the division of nutrition and physical activity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are a number of effective strategies parents can use to reduce television watching time.
• Perhaps most important is to start early. It's harder cut back on established television watching patterns than to begin by limiting the amount of television a child watches. Similarly, it's harder to remove a television from a child's room than not place one there in the first place.
• Parents need to pay attention to both the content of what their children watch and how much television they watch. It's important to monitor the sexual content, violence and drug use seen in shows. However, studies have shown it's total watching time that most correlates to obesity. The same type of relationship exists for total television watching time and increased risk of ADHD.
• Parents should offer their children alternatives to watching television. According to the CDC's research, children don't really regard watching television as "fun." Rather, most children consider television watching a "default behavior."
According to Dr. Dietz, parents should ask their children what they find more fun than watching television. With that knowledge, the children can be involved in activities other than watching television. His work found that parents control television watching if it interferes with important family activities such as family time and school work. Not surprisingly, parents tend to control television watching more on weekdays than on the weekend.
Family Practice News, 3/15/05
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