Children adore any food, in any quantity, in front of a screen.

Let’s talk with a paediatrician about meals and screen time.

In the era of high-end technologies. Now, this is the major problem for almost every other mother: having meals with a screen.

Watching TV while having snacks and playing games on a tablet may seem like a normal evening routine for a child. But the screen could do more than shift their physical location. It could affect how much attention the child pays to the food, how fast they eat, and how they know they are full. Nothing is seen or felt; only the screen goes to the eyes and mind.

It would be too naïve to claim, “screen time makes children overeat”. Evidence suggests that the context of screen use matters. This embraces not only the type of screen use but also the food available to the child.

Typical eating involves different stimuli: hunger before the meal, food taste and texture while eating, and feelings of satiety that develop during the meal. If a child is engaged with a programme or game, part of their attention shifts from food to the screen.

Thus, it becomes easier for them to eat automatically without being hungry. Children can keep snacking because the programme is ongoing, not because they feel hungry.

Nevertheless, the scientifically proven effect goes beyond this common explanation. A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled trials in children and adolescents found no significant effect of eating while watching television on immediate calorie intake in a laboratory setting. Moreover, the authors found that many reviewed studies had a modest or high risk of bias.

This does not mean that eating with screens is safe. It means the impact of this phenomenon depends on the context and an individual’s behaviour.

Parents should set clear boundaries for eating habits and screen time.