---
title: Why is w-sitting being promoted in advertising?
description: Imagine my surprise as I’m flipping through my August 24, 2009 issue of People magazine and I see an ad for Walmart and Healthtex showing a picture of a child w-sitting.  As I’ve mentioned in ‘Why is W-sitting a Four Letter Word?‘ w-sitting is a posture that when used frequently by children can have adverse […]
---

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# Why is w-sitting being promoted in advertising?

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![ParentsMagAlecandra](https://static.hsstatic.net/BlogImporterAssetsUI/ex/missing-image.png "ParentsMagAlecandra")

Imagine my surprise as I’m flipping through my August 24, 2009 issue of People magazine and I see an ad for Walmart and Healthtex showing a picture of a child w-sitting.  As I’ve mentioned in ‘[Why is W-sitting a Four Letter Word?](https://starfishtherapies.com/2009/04/21/why-is-w-sitting-a-four-letter-word/)‘ w-sitting is a posture that when used frequently by children can have adverse effects on their gross motor development as well as their posture and hip development.

Just to warn you I’m about to get on my soap box and many of you may think I am being overly dramatic but I am trying to make a point.

I find it appalling that two well known companies would find it okay to show a photo of a child doing something that is not only not beneficial to their development but possibly detrimental.  This may not be something that is well publicized but I am hoping to make it more well known that this is not a good position for children to be utilizing on a regular basis.  How would you feel if you were to see ads with pictures of children riding bikes without helmets, or riding in cars without car seats.  Like I said, I may be overly dramatic but at one time these were common practices and through intervention by the public, and media cooperation these became the norm rather than the rare.  No one thinks twice about putting a helmet on their child even to ride a tricycle and there are all sorts of laws about weight, height and age that you must comply with before you even think about putting your child in the car without a car seat.  I remember when seatbelts weren’t even mandatory.  So, I’m just putting forth that without consistency from parents and professionals out there people will not realize that w-sitting is a really poor choice for kids positioning and an even poorer choice for the media to be utilizing in an ad campaign for two established companies.

Ok, now that I’ve stepped off my soapbox, does anyone else have thoughts on this?

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