Home Daycare Turns Kids Into Couch Potatoes

Children in home-based daycare watch far more TV than kids in formal child-care centers, with preschoolers averaging as much as 3.4 hours a day. The numbers in a new survey haven't changed much from stats recorded in previous years, which the researchers say they find "disconcerting, given the intervening publication of the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines regarding television use for young children."

"Our findings highlight just how pervasive screen time is for very young US children," write the researchers, who note that excessive TV watching in this age group is linked to language delay, obesity, and decreased attention spans, the Los Angeles Times reports.
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