ABU DHABI // Children are spending too much time in front of screens on their phones, playing games consoles or watching TV instead of taking part in sports, a paediatriction has said.
Dr Marwa Ahmad Abdelfattah, specialist paediatrician at Brightpoint Royal Women’s Hospital in Abu Dhabi, said parents often complain to her that their children do not want to go out to play while asking to eat junk food daily.
“These children are often obese and parents actually ask me if they have a disease,” she said.
“Children should be made to do a sport as part of the morning assembly and they should be encouraged to walk to school or ride a cycle,” Dr Abdelfattah said.
“Don’t let children have junk food. Encourage them to participate in a sport to make them more active and limit screen time.”
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children and adolescents should be limited to just two hours media time - which included phones, tablets, and social media- a day.
In 2005, the UAE Global school-based health survey found that only 61.7 per cent of secondary school children were sticking to this limit while in 2010, the number dropped to 48.7 per cent.
The survey also showed that 56.9 per cent of Emirati students in Abu Dhabi, 57.5 per cent in Dubai, 63.8 per cent in the Northern Emirates, and 60.1 per cent in Sharjah were limited to two hours media time per day.
Among expatriate children, the figures were 63.8 per cent in Abu Dhabi, 55.3 per cent in Dubai, 66.2 per cent in the Northern Emirates, and 58.5 per cent in Sharjah.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
