Organizația Mondială a Sănătății

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   A child's day is a closed twenty-four-hour budget: what you put in one place you take from another, so the guide is not written in prohibitions but in allocated hours — sleep, movement, reading, free play, screen, time with you.

   Guidelines on Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep for Children under 5 Years of Age · 2019

   The screen gets what is left of the budget, not what it asks for.

   The idea that makes the guide applicable is that hours do not add up infinitely. You have a budget and you divide it. Here are the working figures, per week, so you have something to subtract from. Sleep: eleven to fourteen hours a day at one to two years, ten to thirteen at three to five, nine to eleven at six to twelve, eight to ten at thirteen to eighteen — and a fixed waking time matters more than a fixed bedtime. Movement: at least an hour a day of out-of-breath movement, at any age above five. Reading together: twenty minutes a day up to ten, then reading alone, still twenty. Free play, with no adult organising it: a minimum of an hour a day up to ten. One-to-one time with you, no phone and no purpose: fifteen minutes a day, negotiable in length, not negotiable in existence. A meal eaten together: at least five times a week — it is the single indicator with a measured effect on vocabulary, grades and substance use in adolescence. The screen gets what is left, not what it asks for.

   “Time spent sedentary should be replaced with active play, and quality sleep must be protected as part of the same twenty-four-hour budget.”

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