MONDAY, May 7 (HealthDay News) -- American infants, toddlers and preschoolers are growing up with almost universal access to electronic media, according to a report in the May issue of Pediatrics. About one in five children aged 0 to 2 and more than one-third of 5- to 6-year-olds have a television in their bedroom although the practice is counter to American Academy of Pediatrics' guidelines.
Elizabeth A. Vandewater, Ph.D., of the University of Texas at Austin, and colleagues analyzed media habits among 1,051 U.S. children aged 6 months to 6 years to determine whether they fall within guidelines set forth by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
Three-quarters of all children watched television and 32 percent watched videos/DVDs for about one hour and 20 minutes on a typical day. The majority of children aged 3 to 6 fell within the AAP guidelines, which suggest limiting viewing time to no more than two hours a day. By contrast, 68 percent of children aged 0 to 2 did not meet AAP guidelines, which state that they should not watch television at all.
"The findings of this study provide a compelling case for the importance of additional research on the impact of electronic media on very young children's developmental outcomes," the authors conclude.
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