A Greener Check Up?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is a professional association that has physician guidelines for child television viewing. These guidelines direct pediatricians to ask parents and their young patients about the amount of TV they watch each day and, if they find it is over done, to recommend limits for health reasons. The AAP recognizes that parents need to monitor for too much telelvision viewing and so it has also adopted family guidelines for use at home.

We think the AAP should adopt "Green Hour" guidelines too! This way the examining physician would inquire if children were getting enough healthful outdoor time to stem obesity, the need for attention deficit medications and more. An average of one hour outside per day would be the perfect prescription for getting kids away from television and into a healthy outdoor world.