Daily HealthBeat Tip

Parents, kids and the tube.

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Whatever kids learn watching TV, it's not multitasking. A researcher says a lot of the tube time was spent alone, and mostly subtracted from time kids could spend with a parent.

Researcher Elizabeth Vandewater of the University of Texas at Austin had parents track the varied ways in which their kids spent time. Her study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, was in the journal Pediatrics.

Let's look at kids 2 and below:

"For every hour they watched television, on a weekday, they spent 52 minutes less interacting with their parents, and 49 minutes less on the weekend." (six seconds)

Maybe Mom watched some TV with the kids. But of all the things TV time could have been subtracted from, most was from parents' time.

Vandewater suggests parents view their kids' viewing with caution.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: March 23, 2006

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