NEW DELHI: As per the recent survey conducted by the Indian Academy of Pediatric, digital screens are one of the main reasons for obesity among children and for reducing their thinking ability. With the lockdown, matters became worse when children (2 months to 18 months old) were exposed to digital screens which resulted in sleeplessness.
Considering the matter, a group of doctors from GB Pant Hospital including Dr Piyush Gupta, Dr Pinky Meena and Dr Dheeraj Shah conducted a survey where they found that children were exposed to digital screens from a very young age.
“We interviewed 370 mothers-baby pairs. The mother is the primary caretaker of toddlers in most of the families (99%) and only 8 (2.2%) kids are sent to daycare centers. More than 90% of mothers were homemakers, and almost 90.5% of the families belonged to middle socioeconomic strata,” said Dr Piyush Gupta. The survey said that watching television for more than 2 hours per day has been the cause of obesity among pre-school children.
Blue light emitted by electronic media suppresses and disrupts melatonin secretion. The use of light-emitting media prior to sleep is associated with decreased subjective sleepiness and suppressed late evening rise of pineal melatonin.
Most children using a cell phone or laptop tend to have poor posture, with heads tilted forward and shoulders stooping forward to look at the screen. This can lead to increased stress around the cervical spine. Post the survey, the institute issued guidelines on screen time and digital wellness in infants, children and adolescents.
As per the guidelines, children below 2 years of age should not be exposed to any type of screen including smartphones, tablets, and television. “Screen exposure should be limited to a maximum of one hour of supervised screen time per day for children 24-59 months of age, and less than two hours per day for children 5-10 years of age,” read the guidelines.