Sunday, September 8, 2019

3-year-old mobile addict avoids loo, wets bed

Priyangi.Agarwal@timesgroup.com

Bareilly:08.09.2019

Imagine a threeyear-old addicted to mobile phone being counselled. When a woman brought her three-year-old son to Mann Kaksh, counselling centre at Bareilly district hospital, she complained that her child was suffering from bed-wetting (enuresis) and needed help. Later, though, it turned out that he was not going to the loo because he didn’t want to leave the phone for a few minutes.

And the toddler, who spent around eight hours daily watching ‘Doraemon’ and ‘Motu Patlu’, is not alone. In an eye-opener for parents, Mann Kaksh has received 39 cases of children addicted to mobile phones in two months — most of them belonging to age group of 10 to 18 years, growing up in a virtual world of social media and video games.

Dr Ashish Kumar, psychiatrist at district hospital, told STOI, “In majority of the cases, it came to light that parents provide mobile to their children at an early age to keep the kids busy so that their own work is not affected. This later becomes a cause of addiction and bad behaviour among children.”

On the three-year-old boy’s counselling, Khush Ada, clinical psychologist at Mann Kaksh, said, “In the case of three-year-old addicted to phone, his mother would handover mobile to her child while performing household chores”.

Most parents who visit the counselling centre complain of study-related problems and headache among children. However, after going through case history, they learn that the root cause is mobile addiction.

“Children spend hours on their phones browsing social media sites and playing games. They start living in a virtual world and ignoring studies and sleep. If a phone is taken away from them, they become agitated,” added Ada.

CMO Dr Vineet Shukla said, “Parents should restrict use of phones among children. To keep kids engaged, parents should make them play in the open.”

Dr Kumar said, “Many young people end up spending hours on phones to cope up with anxiety and depression. The long hours on mobile disturb their sleep.”

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