Cutting back on TV time, helping overweight children eat less
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- March
- 14
There’s this funky new device U.S. researchers have come up with that monitors TV and computer use, cutting it off once a certain, pre-set limit is reached.
The idea is that this “helped young, overweight children eat less and lose weight,” according to a study by Leonard Epstein and others at the University of Buffalo, SUNY. The study recently was published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, I read in this Reuters article. (Download the full study in a PDF by clicking here.)
His team studied 70 children aged 4 to 7 whose body mass index or BMI was at the 75th percentile or higher for their age and gender. A BMI is a ratio of height and weight. All of the children regularly watched TV or played computer games at least 14 hours per week at home.About half of the children had a TV monitoring device attached to their computers and TV sets that gradually reduced their TV time by 50 percent.
I guess if the time is decreased gradually, the child might not notice so much.
But I can’t help but feel that parents need to put their feet down more and just regulate television viewing themselves.
I’ve said before that I’m certainly no TV-less saint. But when our (nearly) 4-year-old starts getting whiny about television, we shut it off, right then and there. Crying, yelling, pouting — all are immediate tickets to getting the TV shut off.
Heck, sometimes we just say, “Play with your toys. No more TV. You can watch a show tonight.” Usually there’s some pouting and crying and stomping and if he gets really bratty and throws something, into the corner he goes.
“There is no crying for television in this house,” is our mantra.
Look, I blog about television. I like television. I probably watch too much television myself (virtually all of it after they’re asleep or while they’re napping on weekends). But I’m an adult. It’s my choice. We’ve had years without television, years with every conceivable channel. It’s ebbed and flowed.
But with two little ones, having excellent cable and a good video rental plan is the only way we get our entertainment. We rarely get to movies and getting to a show in the city is out of the realm of possibility at the moment (and with prices the way they are, unlikely to change anytime soon).
That doesn’t mean that the kids get to watch however much they want. And it’s up to us, their parents, to turn off the dial. I can’t help but feel that abdicating that responsibility to a device/machine/whatever is abdicating part of my role as a parent.
Photo, November 2002, by Seth Harrison/The Journal News/LoHud.com
This entry was posted
on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 2:18 pm by Amy Vernon.
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I 100% agree with you! However, I do revert to a device… I have a very loud kitchen timer and whenever our boys sit in front of anything with a screen (yes, I even count the gameboy), we set this timer and when it rings, they’re done. Another important thing is that we do not permit food in the tv/computer room. Not only because of the mess and the potential hazard, but because it’s a bad idea to allow mindless eating, which contributes to obesity. We are the parents and ultimeately it is our responsibility.
That’s an excellent idea, Marianne. I like it. Methinks I’ll try that this coming weekend. The timer could also have the added benefit of teaching them more time concepts… Good thoughts about food. We have a pretty small house, though, and the tv room and living room are one and the same. We sometimes let Rafael eat while watching, but we’re providing the food and are extremely aware of what he’s eating and when and how much. When he’s older, it definitely will be something to consider more.