Art by Kristin

Good parenting includes encouraging your kids to eat their meals with the family at the dinner table. Besides helping to develop good table manners, conversation, language skills, communication, and family camaraderie; eating at the table may also impact on a child's weight. The amount of time a child spent eating meals in front of the TV was correlated with an increase in TV watching time in the study, "Home Environmental Influences on Children's Television Watching from Early to Middle Childhood". It was also found that the amount of time young children watched TV was related to weight gain and when older children watched TV for more than 2 hours of TV on a daily basis, they were more at risk for weight gain. The Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics concludes, "Modifying access, particularly by reducing the frequency of meals eaten while watching TV, could promote lower children's TV watching and adiposity." BEST PRACTICE: Eat together as a family at the dinner table. Plan your exercise and TV watching time carefully. Make sure that TV watching time isn't greater than amount of time spent exercising. Use TV to wind down at the end of the day, or save your TV watching time for that special program. Source: The Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics 2002:23:127-132, Authors:Brian E.Saelens, PhD.; James F. Sallis, Ph.D.; Philip R. Nader, M.D.; Shelia L. Broyles, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Charles C. Berry, Ph.D.; Howard L. Taras, M.D.

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