Posts Tagged ‘Children’
TV Viewing Among Kids at an Eight-Year High
They should know: Nielsen, the TV ratings company, has just released a new report:
American children aged 2-11 are watching more and more television than they have in years. New findings from The Nielsen Company show kids aged 2-5 now spend more than 32 hours a week on average in front of a TV screen. The older segment of that group (ages 6-11) spend a little less time, about 28 hours per week watching TV, due in part that they are more likely to be attending school for longer hours.
Average Weekly TV And Peripheral Consumption Among All Kids 2-5 Total TV DVR DVD VCR Game Console Over 32 hrs 24hrs 51mins 1hr 29mins 4hrs 33mins 45mins 1hr 12mins Among All Kids 6-11 Total TV DVR DVD VCR Game Console Over 28 hrs 22hrs 9mins 59mins 2hrs 28mins 18mins 2hrs 23mins This trend of increased viewing among children mirrors the overall increase in media consumption we’ve been tracking over the…
One More Reason Not To Give Kids Psychotropic Drugs: It Makes Them Fat
Nathan Seppa reports for US News & World Report:
Many young children and adolescents taking drugs for severe psychiatric problems gain substantial weight and, in some cases, show increased levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides in their blood, researchers report in the Oct. 28 Journal of the American Medical Association.
Although the data from this study need to be replicated over a longer time frame, the findings nonetheless raise worrisome questions about anti-psychotic drugs that often benefit children who have schizophrenia, autism, tics, severe bipolar disorder or aggressive behavior.
“We are between a rock and a hard place here,” says study coauthor Christoph Correll, a psychiatrist at the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y. These mental disorders are severe and can lead to suicide or to educational problems and emotional scars, he…
