American Academy of Pediatrics Study: TV Watching Adds on Pounds

It's time to get the kids off their butts and away from the TV, a new study, featured in BioMed Central's open access journal International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, reports a child's health is jeopardized and directly related to the number of hours they spend in front of the television.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children under the age of two should not exceed more than two hours of television per day. But many parents use TV as an electronic babysitter and greatly exceed the two-hour recommended limit.

The article goes on to report "...the result could predict that those children who spend an excessive amount of time in front of the TV as a child could experience negative health outcomes in their later life due to their larger waistline and lower muscle strength as physical fitness is directly associated with future health and longevity. "

"TV is a modifiable lifestyle factor, and people need to be aware that toddler viewing habits may contribute to subsequent physical health. Further research will help to determine whether amount of TV exposure is linked to any additional child health indicators, as well as cardiovascular health."

As a parent, my wife and I have never had to worry about our son's waist line expanding from TV, as he is on the go 18 hours a day...at least. What is interesting, when my wife and I started limiting our son's time online and in front of the TV to 40 minutes a day, his imagination has blossomed. That is a subject for another time, but kids and TV are a bad combo, in my opinion, when it is unsupervised.