We Can!® Community News Feature

More Screen Time Equals Less Activity Time

(NAPS) - Don't touch that dial! Every day, children ages 8 to 13 spend nearly six hours watching TV, playing video games or on the computer. Two-thirds of youth have a TV in their room, and those kids spend another 11/2 hours watching TV than their peers. The more time children spend in front of the screen, the more likely they are to be overweight. And, children just aren't getting the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity.

What to do? We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity and Nutrition), from the National Institutes of Health, has some tips: Agree to limit screen time to no more than two hours a day. Don’t put a TV in your child’s bedroom. Turn screen time into active time, by doing simple exercises during commercial breaks. .

We Can! helps parents of children ages 8 to 13 encourage better food choices, increase physical activity and reduce screen time. For more tools to help kids maintain a healthy weight, visit http://wecan.nhlbi.nih.gov or call (866) 35-WECAN.

Did You Know? We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity and Nutrition), from the National Institutes of Health, helps parents encourage better food choices, increase physical activity and reduce screen time. For tools to help kids maintain a healthy weight, visit http://wecan.nhlbi.nih.gov or call (866) 35-WECAN.

Every day, children ages 8 to 13 spend nearly six hours watching TV, playing video games or on the computer.