Fat kid? Maybe because of watching TV too long

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Obesity is not only experienced by adults, but can be experienced even since the child is still very small. Based on WHO data, it is known that there are around 42 million children under the age of 5 who are obese in 2015 and almost half of them are in the Asian and African regions. Whereas in Indonesia alone, children aged 5 to 12 years who are overweight are 19.6%.

The impact of obesity on children will appear later in life and cause disrupted growth and development. Various degenerative diseases can be experienced by children who are obese when they are adults, namely such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, and certain types of cancer. Not only that, obese children are also estimated to be obese when they enter adulthood. A study found that obese children had a 70% risk of experiencing one heart disease when he was an adult.

While the impact that will occur in the short term is that children are prone to prediabetes, problems and disorders arise in their joints and muscles, insomnia, problems with their social relationships and social life and becoming insecure.One of the causes of obesity and obesity in children is parenting, food selection, and lifestyle of children. Because they are still children, most of them may just follow the habits of their mother or father. Therefore, parents' lifestyle is very influential on children.

Children who love watching TV are more likely to have a fat body

Do you often let children watch television for quite a long time? How much time do you give them when they are watching television? It turned out that letting children watch television for too long resulted in a disruption to their health and increased their risk of being obese. Some studies have stated that there is indeed a relationship that shows a causal relationship between watching TV that is too long with the incidence of obesity in children.

A 30-year study in the United Kingdom showed that children who watch television every day can make their body mass index rise to reach the limit of obesity at the age of 30 years. Another study was conducted in New Zealand involving as many as 1000 children, who were studied from their birth to 26 years old. The study found that TV viewing habits that are too frequent at the age of 5 to 15 years cause them to become fatter compared to children their age who did not watch TV during that time. And nutritional status at that time was a strong prediction for knowing nutritional status as an adult.

Even the habit of watching too often since the age of a toddler can also cause children to be overweight, this is evidenced by research conducted in Japan that examined 8000 children at once. The results of these studies are children who are used to watching TV since the age of 3 years tend to experience overweight and obesity at the age of 6 years.

How can watching TV make a fat kid?

According to the survey conducted, children can spend more than 7 hours watching TV or playing with their gadgets. A long time, right? Without your realizing it, you allow your child to linger watching TV and form sedentary habits on them. A sedentary life habit is a lifestyle that is less active and is very susceptible to various diseases.

Not only that, advertisements that are often shown on TV often display unhealthy food advertisements. This will form poor thoughts about foods that must be eaten by children. Children also often watch TV or use a computer while eating unhealthy snacks. Eating while watching TV is not good because, the portion you eat tends to be more than the usual portion eaten.

The absence of control or regulation of diet, makes children very vulnerable to obesity. Moreover, there is no physical activity done because the child's time is spent watching TV, sitting, or sleeping.

Then can I no longer allow children to watch TV?

Sometimes watching a good TV can be a children's learning tool. However, it is recommended to limit the time to watch children's TV only as much as 1 to 2 hours in one day. Even for children under 2 years it is not recommended to watch TV at all.

How to limit children's watching time?

Limiting the time to watch TV for only 2 hours a day may be difficult to implement, because children have made watching TV a routine habit. Therefore, here are a few ways you can limit the time you watch TV in children:

Do not install the TV and computer in the child's room.
Do not allow children to watch TV or use a computer when the child is eating or doing homework.
Determine what TV programs children can watch. If the TV program ends, immediately turn off the TV.
Spend more time with children by doing various fun activities such as playing puzzles, doing sports together, or solving puzzles together.
Not only children who can only watch TV for 2 hours a day, you also have to do it and become a role model for children.