December 24th

If your child is asking Santa for a television in his room, a new study shows good reason to say no to the request.

Child watching TV

New study links obesity with a TV in children’s rooms.

According to a Pennington Biomedical Research Center Study, watching TV in the bedroom makes children twice as likely to be overweight and nearly three times as likely to get  heart disease and diabetes. The average American child (8-18) watches about 4.5 hours of TV each day, according to the study. Seventy percent of kids have a TV in the bedroom, and about one-third of youth from ages 6-19 is considered obese.

One way to get kids to turn off the TV is to encourage time outdoors as a family to enjoy the fresh air and green space around your home. TurfMutt has a number of ideas for fun family activities that don’t involve screen-time.  Click here to learn more.