Mini Couch Potatoes

Filed in archive At Home on May 9, 2007

According to the research conducted by frederick Zimmerman of the University of Washington, 90 percent of children in the U.S. under the age of 2 and 40 percent of infants watch TV regularly. The study did not show if this was positive or negative towards the child's development, but the number of kids watching television was higher than expected.

A second study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine implied that excessive TV viewing (meaning 3-4 hrs of TV viewing per day) may lead to attention or learning problems, and the possibility that kids are less likely to go to college.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that children below 2 years of age should not watch any TV and and children beyond 2 years should only watch a maximum of 2 hrs a day of quality programs.

Although TV and Videos are promoted by marketers as helpful for the child's brain development, none of it has ever been proven.

The study conducted by Frederick Zimmerman was conducted through random telephone surveys in the Washington and Minnesota areas, with a sample size of 1,000 families.

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