(Image source: Information Facts ) BY JASMINE BAILEY If your kids have a TV in their room, a new study shows it could be bad for their health—with a link to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Here's KDKA and HLN “Researches found kids with TVs in their rooms are 3 times more likely to be overweight." “Doctors say that those kids sleep less, they don’t get regular family meals— all of which can contribute to obesity. It is estimated that 70 percent of American kids though, have televisions in their rooms.” The study was done by The Pennington Biomedical Research Center, with 369 participants. Researchers say the results apply to kids from ages 5 to 18. And a writer for Red Orbit notes — the study comes at an important time. “As childhood obesity has been skyrocketing in recent years … the percentage of obese children [has] … increased from 7% to 20% between 1980 and 2008 alone.” But some parents make the claim that having a TV in their child’s room helps more than it hurts. One mother wrote a blog entry in Babble titled “My Toddler Has a TV in His Room and I’m Not Sorry.” In the blog she wrote..   “ Kids love TV and parents love that kids love TV. I mean, I know I do…I view it as a sanity-preserving thing. Picture it: Saturday morning, 5:30 a.m., I awake to a messy haired boy breathing on my face. He’s ready to party – I’m not. …. I stumble into his bedroom,trip on a Hot Wheel and pop in a Disney DVD. I stumble back to my room...and fall into a comatose sleep for another 90 glorious minutes…” But regardless of whether the TV is in a bedroom or not, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children’s TV time be limited to two hours a day or less.