Technology and childhood obesity: what's the connection?

As we continue this week with our list of Top 10 culpritscontributing to childhood obesity, we come to the ever-popular technological advances of today... Concerning obesity, we just may have shot ourselves in the foot on this one.  In general, kids today prefer sitting hours on end in front of the TV or computer or games instead of heading outdoors or to the field or park.

So, what do we do?  Glad you asked.  the current recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)  is a maximum of 1-2 hours of TV or leisure computer / video game time per day.  It has been estimated that the average child sees approximately 5 hours of TV per day!  how does one even do that?!  And how does one get anything else accomplished?  Where is the reading time?  Homework time?  Family quality time?  Sports or exercise time?  Quality down time? All left behind... all secondary to technology.

The AAP also offers a great site on Media and Internet Use.  It's great for offering further advice for media and internet use with children and teens.  Look for the tab called 'Promoting Physical Activity - Bright Futures' for more reliable information. 

It may not always be easy to get your child or teen active (more often than not, it's quite a challenge), so here are the top 3 suggestions from the AAP to getting them off the couch and away from the set (see link above for full set of recommendations) :

• Make it fun and you play with them -- kids love it when their parents are willing to put themselves out there, fall with them, reach for the balls, make mistakes and laughing together, working up a sweat... all in good fun and spending super quality time together!
• Plan for it -- in this day and age, if you do not make plans for things, they most likely get pushed off of the "to-do" list for the day.
• Let them choose their activity.  Kids are way more pone to exercise and be active if they are looking forward to it and become good at it too.

Also refer to the article "Physical activity, exercise, and sedentary activity in children: what can my child do?" for further suggestions.

Picture by Eray Haciosmanoglu, PhotoXpress

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