Guest Post by Dr. Elise Bialylew, Founder and host of Mindful in May.

Elise Bialylew Bio:

Elise Bialylew is bestselling author of, The Happiness Plan and founder of Mindful in May, the world’s largest online global mindfulness fundraising campaign that teaches thousands of people each year to meditate, while raising funds to build clean water projects in the developing world. A doctor trained in psychiatry, turned social entrepreneur and mindfulness expert, she’s passionate about supporting individuals and organisations to develop inner tools for greater wellbeing and flourishing, and offers workshops and training at The Mind Life Project. Her work has featured in the Huffington Post, New York Times, and on Australian Television.

A guest post by feeding specialist, Simone Emery from Play With Food

Simone is one the fussy eating experts we interview on our ecourse, Thrive, Raising Kids Who Love Real Food where she shares some invaluable tools to help you say goodbye to picky eating. We are running our only live round of Thrive starting 22nd May 2019! Find out more here. 

Over to you Simone …

Many of you wouldn’t be surprised there are growing trends linking technology usage with poorer nutrition selections, higher rates of inactivity and over eating.

We live in a digital world and the long term implications are still emerging. What is more concerning is that screen use has changed dramatically for our children and the ramifications are yet to be fully understood.

We use screens via our phones, our tablets, the TV and laptops, let alone in the work environment. Our children observe our screen use and they may have a range of screen options being offered to them from a very early age. A 2015 poll by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association found that 24% of 2-year-olds had screens on during dinner and by the age of 8 this figure had risen to over 45%.

What is the impact on diets?

The research is mounting about the dietary impact of technologies and not very much of it is good news.

The main dietary impacts include a tendency towards lower dietary variety, increased consumption of foods that are ‘easier to eat’ and having a more sedentary lifestyle.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom for nutrition and screen time.

Yet, before diving into what to watch, I believe families should consider their own goals.

We need to set and protect boundaries about technology use.

We also need to set and protect the roles we play in providing, preparing and partaking in food.

I say “set and protect” specifically here because having the whole family on the same page helps avoid confusion that can lead to conflict (aka techno tantrums, mealtime meltdowns and ensuing stress).

It also means that you are mindful of this on a daily basis by protecting your boundaries. A family’s boundaries need to consider who, what (content), when and where.

The “what” of screen usage should definitely pass through a content filter appropriate to your family.

A good guideline for understanding the “what” of content for children is that the content should assist their development and is age appropriate.

So, you wouldn’t be surprised at finding content that helps nutrition (especially for kids) is not easy to find.

There are an amazing number of adverts, body image issues and negative self-talk weaved into digital content.

However, research shows that if screens are used with another person (known as co-viewing), the child learns from spontaneous conversation and there is more effective gate-keeping of appropriate messages.

Your conversations can be enriched significantly by co-viewing media with your child.

This is especially important for children that are still learning about new foods.

Yes, by cleverly using screens and the opportunities it affords you can have meaningful impact on diet.

Ideas of ways that you can co-view screens with your child to enhance their nutrition:

• How to guides for preparing fruits and vegetables (YouTube has some funny and unusual ways to prepare fruits and vegetables  
• Looking up recipes and watching cooking instructional videos
• Making your own cooking video
• Taking pictures of your meals together and discussing the physical properties of the meals together (a great idea for a food anxious child to remove pressure language from the mealtime but give you a chance to still have the food chat you want)
• Helping write a shopping list by googling pictures of the foods you want to buy
• Typing (writing) a kids recipe book full of your kids favorite homemade foods (like to your eBook?)
• Doing some kids yoga or exercise programs from a DVD / website. This will give them some great physical inputs to help increase their attention span at an upcoming meal.

In summary, technology use (ours and our children’s) is definitely part of our lives now.

However, cleverly defining boundaries, making sure we focus on the developmental needs of our children and working in co-viewed content will help you feel less guilty when you flick the switch on.

Simone

If you want more from Simone and other nutrition and parenting experts jump on over and take a look at our 21 day ecourse, Thrive, Raising Kids Who Love Real Food. The next live round starts 22nd May 2019! 

He won’t remember what I said 30 seconds ago, but he won’t forget that I promised him something with an ‘i’ in front of it when he turned 10. It’s astounding, really, but it does prove, in some small way at least, that he has the ability to love, can devote himself to a cause, and has staying power! Even if it is for a gadget. The bond between him and lit-up, rectangle-shaped screeny thingees has proven to be unshakeable, and has outlasted most Hollywood marriages.

And yet, now that he has his ‘preciousss’ iPad, it has left me with mixed emotions. I’m happy for him as he branches into a new phase of his life. However, nagging concerns linger, some of which romanticise back to a simpler time, some that relate to technology’s effects on relationships, and others that centre more around the ‘exposure’ to radiation.

I ‘get’ that the world is becoming increasingly ruled by technology and ‘connectivity’, and that our kids are competing with the largest nursery of tech-savvy, but still pimply, critters in history. Technology will prove to be an increasingly massive aspect of all kids’ lives and, these days, they need to know their way around a laptop more urgently than a benchtop. It’s pretty much unavoidable. In a way, I’m actually amazed I held him back so long! Having said that, Mr 10 really didn’t mind. He got his periodic fixes at his friends houses, and life was full of sport, music, fun and homework anyway.

So why did I choose to hold back on technology?

Immersion in technology has a host of anti- social effects that concern me. They manifest as increased insularity, less time spent actually meeting and conversing with friends and family, shorter attention spans and information retention, and therefore a stunted social maturity. This isn’t ideal from such a young age, and I feel kids can miss out on opportunities to live and laugh and form deep personal bonds. Then you have worry about monitoring what they’re actually looking at, which will become more acute as they get older.

Athletic activity gives way to room-time, usually slumped over a computer or tablet in such a way as to have physiotherapists rubbing their hands together. And the creativity spawned from periods of boredom (yes, kids should be allowed to become bored occasionally!) is lost. I can safely say that I miss the kids regularly destroying the lounge room as they build cubby houses, and shooting hoops out the back. Already they would prefer to play Mine-whatever-it’s-called than go to the beach.

What concerns me most as a mother is that exposure to pulsating radiation is poorly understood. Even worse, many don’t even ask the questions that beg asking, such as “Is all this Wifi coursing through my body a good thing?” iPads and iPods emit microwave radiation when surfing the net, and iPads have extra-low frequency magnetic fields. And as we all know from turning our iPhones on, we often pick up multiple Wifi systems from several nearby houses (or shops). Schools in several European countries have even banned Wifi citing health concerns.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified low intensity magnetic fields as possible carcinogens, and research has linked exposure to them with leukemia and immunity disorders.

Exposure standards vary from country to country, were last updated over a decade ago (before wide-scale Wifi use), and are still based on adult exposure, which even the WHO regard as potentially carcinogenic. Children’s skulls are thinner and bodies are still developing, which means we should take radiation more seriously where they are concerned.

I may not have all the answers, but I know I’m not going to take chances with my kids’ health until the research has more data points to (more than likely) highlight the real risks. This is how I approach the use of technology in our house:

• Set limits on play time for technology, whether that be for games, YouTube, or other (if it’s a maths App, I might let them have more …)
• Supervise any forays onto the net, which might even include ‘minimising’ a YouTube video of a favourite song so that they can still listen
• Give the kids extra time as a reward for things such as good behaviour, music or sports practice, and so on
• Ensure that iPads are never placed on the lap, where electric and magnetic fields can expose reproductive organs to harmful radiation
• Turn on ‘airplane mode’ so that any games played or movies watched can be done so in relative safety
• Invest in an iPads cover that shields most of the radiation emitted. Pongs is one model you may like to try

Do you limit your childs technology time? Do you have any extra tips on how to lower exposure to WiFi? I’d love to hear from you.