Here we go - another parental guilt trip...

[musica]

Have a look at this

I really find this one hard to believe - each hour spent in front of the TV increases the likelihood of an attention deficit disorder by 10%???? Surely this is way too simplistic a study to make sweeping claims like this. And is it not possible that children with a disorder like this watch more TV BECAUSE of that? Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely that's like saying people with broken legs wear plaster casts, therefore wearing a plaster cast can increase your chance of a broken leg? I know that's not a totally good analogy, but I can't think of another.

[misdee]

there is one, very contarversial. all cannabis user will become herion users as all herion users started off smoking pot.

erm ok.

[FairyMum]

Seems very general. I would think it depends on whaty kind of tv a child watches too. If a child watches only MTV and those horrid Japanese cartoons, then I am pretty sure it's not ideal. I think there are plenty of good children's programmes, but parents should be alert to what children watch and perhaps watch with them to talk about the programmes together? I also think if a child is active and has many different experiences during the day, then a couple of hours telly-watching doesn't hurt. I am personally careful with my children and prefer them to play and read books because I think tv makes children passive. I think a lot of my friends children watch far to much tv. TV is always around in the background like a constant presence and the children have a tv in their bedrooms. Why can't they read or play? Be outdoors? I think you have to be able to present research like this without it being seen as trying to make parents feel guilty.

[LIZS]

Sounds rather flawed and oversimplistic to me. Surely most parents would under rather than overstate the amount of tv watched by their kids, so the exposure could be far greater. What about diet, predisposition, opportunities to play outside and other environmental factors which may or may not contribute? There must be a huge statistical difference between the 3 and 5% too. Wonder if when they say diagnosed whether this is as in they definitely have the condition or number of Ritalin prescriptions ?

[allatsea]

these articles make me so cross! What sweeping generalisations! none of us want our children to grow up into tv addicted couch potatoes, and a balance of activities is important, but i think that it's rather intimidating to say that every additional hour dd spends watching tv makes her 10% more likely to develop ADHD!!!!! This opens up a whole can of worms about the increase in 'diagnosis' of ADHD and its management, I still maintain that my dd really benefits from the tv she watches (which is limited to Cbeebies and some films, Mary Poppins is a current favourite). She has the most developed vocabulary of her peers, wants to take up ballet dancing because she saw it on Tweenies and 'practices' all the time. She dances along to all the songs, and when not watching is just as happy to cook/garden/paint/run and jump.

[musica]

I agree allatsea - it's more to do with what they watch than how much. Certainly ds benefits from the tv he watches, and he does watch more than I would ideally like. But he watches Thomas the Tank Engine, and then spends hours acting out the stories with his engines, and making up new ones. He has picked up lots of language from Tweenies and Tikkabilla, and especially Ivor the Engine.

[iota]

It's obviously a good thing that I packed my 2 off to nursery at the age of 6 moths - no TV watching there!! - (but a whole new set of working mother guilt insead)

[iota]

6 moths?! I mean 6 months

[Angeliz]

don't you just get sick of being told what to do all the time!
I am so tired of it all at the moment!!

How people ever coped on their own without all this information on what they should eat-drink-wear-watch-sleep-excersize is beyond me!!!

[kiwisbird]

my mother was like this in the 70's we had no tv she was convinced it was evil so I watch it pretty selectively, I am not keen on letting younger kids/babies watch it... my son was the only kid who didn;t know what a teletubby was for a long time.
I can't quantitively say yes or no, I know plenty of kids with iddues who watch no tv and plenty vice versa.
Ironically my mum when stays commandeers the tv for total drivel...

[FairyMum]

I think these things always gets taken the wrong way by parents who have a fairly healthy and responsible attitue to their children's telly-watching. There are plenty of kids with no restrictions on how much nor what they watch and whose parents never take them out in the fresh air. It's probably those parents who should take some advise from this kind of research, but they probably won't even hear about it........

[Easy]

I was going to start this one until I saw you had, Musica.

Yes, just something else for us to feel guilty about.

I think, as others have said, it partly depends on what they watch. I think it also depends on how they watch. I used to do my chores while ds watched when he was tiny, but I always had an ear out, so I could talk to him about the programme later (and I'm talking about before he learned to talk), and relate other things we did back to what he'd watched. We also used to switch tv off to do other things, whereas I knew one mum (of twins) who left it on all day, and the kids played around it. That meant they kept stopping and starting, never concentrating on one thing, neither the tv nor their toys (nor her, for that matter).

And it's alright suggesting no TV to bright, educated, relatively wealthy mums who will do something else to stimulate their little minds, but what about the underprivileged kids, who's alternative will be to sit in a corner looking at nothing, not being stimulated at all, because their parents don't know any better?

Oooops, starting to rant now

[handlemecarefully]

I was listening to the Big Cheese who runs Cbeebies being interviewed on this subject on Radio 5 live yesterday. He made the point that the research hadn't looked at the effect of children watching tailored, bespoke childrens programmes like Cbeebies which are 'slower paced' and develop a story (so encourage concentration and attention). He said that indiscriminate viewing like watching the shopping channels and continuous ad breaks in the US might well cause problems but Cbeebies is a whole different ball game. That's good enough for me!

[FairyMum]

HMC, I agree with you. Cbeebies have got some wonderful programmes which are both educational and fun. I personally love Balamory:-)

[Sonnet]

I also listened to this interview HMC - and have to say I agree.

I do know households where TV is on in the background most of the day and early evening the programmes become not suitable for the young children in that family.....
I personally think that my elder DD watches/watched too much TV. Saying that she dosn't wtach as much as 2 hours per day except very rarely on a rainy day in the school hols. I also think my attitude is affected bythe fact that I could quite happily live without TV and much prefer to read a book!. DH, on the other hand, could sit in front of TV for hours if he had the time!! My elder DD has started to read a lot over the past 6 to 8 months which has drastically culled her TV time. Interestingly enough DD2 (3) isn't and never has been interested in TV...

[karen99]

My mum read me this article the other day (I guess because the tv always seems to be on in the background when she rings). I started to get paranoid about how much ds is watching (at only 9.5 months!) but he just doesn't care to 'watch' it and just pays attention when his favourite 'song' comes on - fimbles intro music and that dreadful big cook little cook music. I counted the minutes yesterday and it came to ~35mins for the whole day (phew, not as much as I'd thought cos I guess I end up watching it more than him (how sad!))

The only program which holds his attention for about 10mins is Balamory - which I too, Fairymum, think is great. I love the ones that have a story and are slower, allowing him to follow, rather than these crazy, busy cartoons which chop & change. Then again he is only 9mo and I have no idea what'll take his interest later on, but surely the odd 20mins here and there isn't a bad thing, especially when it's channels with no adds (now that's another conversation - why can't ones targetting children be banned??!) [rant over too]

[Lara2]

When DS2 started school his teacher asked why he spoke with an American accent sometimes (because he could!). I replied "Oh, he watches FAR too much television!!" You should have seen her face!! He and his brother have always used it in the way I use the radio, background noise with occassional tuning in when something catches their interest.

[gothicmama]

T V has it's place alongsie everything else and on another article it was proved listenning to music / noise helped with revision thus aiding concentration. Whatever we do someone says it good and some will say it's bad.

[tallulah]

My ADHD son is the one who watches most TV (& yes, the trashy American/Japanese cartoons). He's attracted to it BECAUSE of his condition... it didn't cause it. (He's 14). As a tot, his favourite programme was Sesame Street- he lerned to count with the Count!

[Jimjams]

This is just more "blame the parents" for their child having ADHD. very irritating. Anyone who has spent any time with a child with ADHD would know that it couldn't possibly be caused by watching TV. Difficulty with attention span- maybe if a child is never given any encouragement in any other area. But ADHD? Nah.

Oversimplistic and similar to the "children wouldn't be ADHD if only their parents let them climb trees" recent reports. Although I emailed the researcher behind that and she sent me her original press release which was nothing like the newspaper report. The jpurnalists may well have their over similified take on this.