Toddlers who watch too much television will also widen their waistlines, according to a University of Montreal study published this week.

The study of 1,314 children from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development Parents were asked, “How much time per day does your child spend watching TV?” at 29 months and then again at 53 months. A two-part follow-up test of muscular fitness was conducted on these children when they reached the second grade. First, the children were asked to do a standing long jump test. Second, the children’s waist circumference was measured.

“The mission of this research is not to guilt parents,” reported lead study author Dr. Caroline Fitzpatrick on Monday. “Childhood is a critical period for the development of habits and we were looking for a more direct physical measure of the impact of television on young children.”

The average 2 to 4-year-old in the study sat through 8.82 hours of TV each week. An increase of 4.1 millimeters around the waste was found by age 10.

The habits of the children were ingrained throughout the participants of the school. The study, published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, found nearly 15 percent of the youngsters were watching more than 18 hours of TV a week.

Because researchers relied on mothers’ own reporting of their children’s TV watching habits, Fitzgerald figured their results might be conservative, given the possibility mothers would shave off some TV time.

“Many shows are marketed to parents as educational and beneficial but there is no statistical evidence that this is true,” Fitzpatrick said. “TV watching should be a treat, like chocolate.”

By the numbers: One hour of TV at 29 months led to a 3.61 millimeter decrease in standing long jump results in the second grade. Every hour of TV from 29 months to 53 months led to a 5 percent increase of being in the bottom percentile of the standing long jump test.

One hour of TV from 29 months to 53 months led to a .42 millimeter increase in waste measurement and 18-plus hours per week of TV led to a 7.6 millimeter increase in waste measurement in the second grade.

The study factored in such variables as the family’s income and education as well as the mother’s body mass index.

A 2010 study by Fitzpatrick at the University of Montreal found that each extra hour of TV by toddlers led to a future decrease in how involved they were in school, how good they were at math and how much junk food they ate. Fitzpatrick said she hopes the data will help shape future public health campaigns about the impact of TV watching on children’s health.

Study: Toddlers Who Watch Too Much TV Have Wider Waistlines « CBS DC

Last weekend I met a couple whose children are not permitted to discuss movies or video games at school. The children don’t watch television, have limited computer access and have only seen movies pre-screened by their parents.

There was a time when I might have viewed these restrictions as a bit excessive, but not anymore. With what’s being thrown at kids through media exposure these days, I’m all in with an environment that seeks to filter some of it. As a doctor who treats children, many of whom are overweight or obese, I don’t think there can be much doubt that child-directed advertising is fueling the obesity epidemic. Now, a recently published University of British Columbia study supports that theory with findings that suggest that banning fast-food advertising to children may actually curtail obesity.

Researchers found that a 32-year ban on fast-food advertising to kids in electronic and print media in Quebec resulted in a 13 percent reduction in fast-food expenditures and an estimated 2 billion to 4 billion fewer calories consumed by children in the province. While the rest of Canada has been experiencing the same explosion in childhood obesity seen here in the United States, Quebec has the lowest childhood obesity rate in Canada.

Meanwhile, in the face of our own raging obesity epidemic, child-directed advertising of unhealthful food to children continues unabated. The Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has just released a 2012 report showing that little has changed since 2009, even though the cereal industry claims to have reduced advertising to children.

Despite a slight improvement in overall nutritional quality of kids’ cereals, children still get “one spoonful of sugar in every three spoonfuls of cereal,” according to Jennifer L. Harris, the lead researcher on the Rudd study, and that sugar is heavily marketed: in 2011, 6- to 11-year-olds viewed more than 700 ads per year for cereals on television while preschoolers saw 595. Cereal companies spent $264 million to promote child-targeted cereals in 2011 (an increase of 34 percent from just 2008). Other companies spend millions more promoting unhealthy products — and it works: television viewing and the associated advertising exposure correlate with an increased intake of candy and sugary sodas.

As if pushing unhealthy food wasn’t enough, pharmaceutical companies are now rolling out ads that are designed to appeal to kids. Children’s Claritin, an allergy medication, now includes Madagascar stickers and blogging mothers are encouraged to hold Claritin parties for all the neighborhood kids. We seem to have accepted the idea of companies encouraging children to ask for foods that aren’t healthy choices; now we’re accepting targeted advertising of products that children can’t possibly evaluate.

It doesn’t matter that children aren’t necessarily the ones checking out at the grocery store and driving up to the fast-food outlet. Parents are being bombarded with requests for sugary cereals, fast food and vitamins shaped like dinosaurs. “No” fatigue is rampant, and eventually, “no” doesn’t help. Other studies have shown that once children become teenagers and are able to exert more control over their food choices, they eat less healthily. Years of being saturated with advertising for exactly the foods parents try to regulate can’t help.

Ban on Advertising to Children Linked to Lower Obesity Rates – NYTimes.com