Amount of TV for one year old!

[AmyP]

How much TV do you think is acceptable for a 1 year old per day? My DD LOVES it, and I let her watch for about an hour&half in the morning and same in the evening. Do you think this is too much? I feel really guilty letting her watch any, but she stands in front of the tv pointing and crying!!

[TinsellyRhino]

I would say that is an ok amount

my 19 month watches far too much because I am not coping so pat yourself on the back for finding a balance between her wanting to and not too much

[WeWishUAMerryXmasNANappyNewYr]

i duno i would say maybe an hour a day was okay. i don't really let ds watch tv at the moment so he is not used to watching it. if i have it on while he is in the room i turn him around. although i suspect when he begins to crawl i will have to read a book instead whilst he plays cos i can't imagine any crawling baby only facing one way!

[PizPizPiz]

None. Far too young for tv.

[PanicPressiePants]

None! Ds is 15months and so far I've never had it on for him to sit and watch.
Mainly due to layout of the house though, not through any good parental decisions

[WeWishUAMerryXmasNANappyNewYr]

i personally would try and limit tv viewing until the child is at least 3. that way they don't just expect to watch it all day every day and can use their imagination to have fun.

[IvortheEngine]

I can't really remember but I think my children had a quarter of an hour or less a day until they were much older than that, about 3 yrs or so. From what I've seen with friends, they come to depend on it for entertainment very quickly if they are allowed it whenever they want. I used to mark quality childrens programmes in the paper and just put it on at those times.

[BarbieLovesKen]

None, you've prob heard/read report from the American Academy of Pediatrics so wont bore you with details but recommends no tv whatsoever for children under 2 for loads of reasons so we've decided to go with that.... Having said that, you shouldnt feel guilty, us mothers are ALWAYS feeling guilty about SOMETHING so don't beat yourself up about it, its very difficult to keep a 1 year old entertained 24/7 (I know! our dd is 14months) and your obviously great mother - think that anyone who uses free time to be on net discussion/bragging/worrying bout their little ones is obviously a fabulous parent and lets face it there are mothers/fathers out there unfortunately doing an awful lot worse than allowing little one to watch some tv. Lay off yourself.

[Peggotty]

AmyP, don't worry. I would guess she's not sitting absolutely glued to the screen for that 1.5 hours in the morning and at night, is she? Is she still pottering about/interacting to a certain extent? I think people that allow absolutely NO TV are reasonably rare, but that quite a lot of them use Mumsnet !

My dd (22 months) probably had the same amount of tv up until recently. Although she wasn't watching it the whole time, I made a decision to turn the tv on later in the morning, and in the evening. I've noticed she does play more, and doesn't seem to miss it.

[pablopatito]

BarbieLovesKen, no, I haven't heard of the report. What's the gist of it? DS is 19 months, and watches quite a lot of TV now. I have to admit I don't know what the harm is. He lives his life at 100 miles all the time, and when the TV is on is the only time he stays still for a minute, but even then he's interacting with the TV - dancing to music, naming animals. We watch a lot of nature documentaries and he's fascinated, his first word was 'bear'. For me its educational, helps develop his language, and shows him a world that he wouldn't otherwise get to see (such the Amazon Rain Forest).

I'll have to investigate these reports saying how bad telly is now.

[BarbieLovesKen]

Pablopatito,

heres the address for a bit of that research.

www.whitedot.org/issue/iss_story.asp?slug=ADHD%20Toddlers
(sorry couldnt make it a link)

Please no one take offense by this!!!!

[pablopatito]

No offence taken BLK,
Your link is to the website of Whitedot - "the campaign against television" so I was a bit cynical about the article. But a quick bit of googling for the report has given me some interesting reading, though I have to say the study doesn't sound that scientific (though I'm no expert in these things).

[BarbieLovesKen]

I know, well each to their own but imo, in that link, it sounds scientific enough to me! - there are quotes contained within it from scientists under the heading "babies brains grow rapidly",
also reports from Nancy Hall of Yale University, CENTER IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT,

Jane Healy - CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST AND CHILD BRAIN EXPERT

The American Academy of Pediatrics

and conducted by Dr Dimitri Christakis LEAD RESEARCHER AND DIRECTOR OF THE CHILD HEALTH INSTITUTE.

Personally, I would believe that these people would know far more proven info regarding this subject so, in my book those recommendations are an absolute law in our house!! im way to much in to my statistics where DD is concerned, read up on EVERYTHING re her development or nutrition - and would agree that mothers should go by their own intuition majority of time - I could possibly need to lighten up. So, what would you think after reading up? or still of same opinion?

[pablopatito]

Taken from add.about.com/cs/forparents/a/tvandadd.htm

"Dr. Christakis also admits to the many problems associated with this study:


The data collected was based solely on the answer of parents.
No diagnosis of ADD/ADHD was made by the researchers. There was no input by teachers or doctors on the children's problems.
No children were actually observed during the study, it was based solely on data collected by a major government survey.
The study could not conclude that children who watch television had a higher risk of developing ADD/ADHD because they did not have access to any teacher reports. Reports from teachers are an essential part of the diagnostic process of ADD/ADHD.
Dr. Christakis further states that no data was available to whether children were predisposed to attention problems prior to the study. He indicates that he does not believe this data is necessary as "we don't think of 1-year-olds as having attentional problems, certainly not a clinically detectable one." "

[BarbieLovesKen]

Oh, ok but what about all the other experts who have given their opinion on that link? surely there is definately some truth to it?

To be honest, I know that, after what I have just seen that study is maybe slightly misleading.

Having said that, thats just one study and if you google the subject or look up library for info regarding same you'll will find that the MAJORITY of info would back up American Academy of Pediatrics opinion (admittedly there is quite a bit of Contradictory research out there) but I would be of the opinion that majority rules and also my own opinions of the subject regardless of studies- for e.g, what really has me adamant - (firstly, I know you cannot compare children as they all grow and develop at different stages, so it isnt fair to do so BUT I am positive that this is a result of excessive tv)my dps nephew is now 16months old, our dd is (almost 14months) from the time he was 3/4 months old he has been watching 3hrs + of tv per day... as result (and im sure its the tv) he is unsociable, very poor vocab and very inactive. when you go to the house to see him - he will be sitting glued to the tv, he will not take his eyes off it to look at you, even when you call him/say hello etc.. if you put your hand in front of his eyes to block the tv he will bang your hand out of the way, if you stand in front of tv he gets very annoyed, granted that he is now beginning to say the odd word - mama, dada, etc up to recently the only word I have heard him say is "huh" and a point when he wants something. I find this really disturbing!! He is quite overweight as he now prefers to sit in front of tv rather than play and run around. Our dd has never watched tv and (know we all think our own little ones are the most fantastic in the world so here comes the bragging...) is only 14months and she is so intelligant, she "reads" all the time, turning the pages and babbling like mad, extremely sociable and active, has 25 + words (can count to 4!) and is beginning to put her sentences together... alot will prob tell me this is irrelevant and has nothing to do with tv, but imo it definately is...

[Callisto]

The problem with under threes watching telly (as I understand it), is that the images move too fast for the child to process properly and this results in improperly developed neural pathways in the brain which results in attention span problems. My dd watches little or no tv and I plan on keeping it that way for as long as possible. All research points towards tv being bad for children - its a no-brainer really.

[pablopatito]

Callisto, you say "All research points towards tv being bad for children - its a no-brainer really". I can't find any research in my Googling, can you help? There's lots of articles briefly mentioning research, but no actual links to the research or detailed info about research. I looked on website of the American Academy of Pediatrics but can't find their study that people are referring to. All I can find on their website is their advice not to let under two's watch TV "Until more research is done about the effects of TV on very young children" which seems to imply its lack of research that bothers them, not the research itself.

I have to say its not something I'd ever considered until today, but now I'd like to read this research and maybe put a stop to my toddler's TV watching if, as you say, there's lots of research indicating its bad.

[robinia]

Just turned TV off

Ds, 14 months, has until very recently shown no interest at all in TV. In the last month he now shows interest for maybe 10-15 minutes at the most. Very active, socialble boy, babbles a lot but no recognisable words as such except possibly a mummmumummummmm. Trying to find the research I read about a year back that said for pre-schoolers (maybe a bit older than 1 year old, can't remember) 30-45 minutes of age-appropriate TV was positively beneficial.

[WhenSantaWentQuietlyMad]

Well my one year old has a TV in her room and has already worked out the remote control buttons for Cbeebies, so I am not in control anymore.

[mamama]

None, although DS is 15 months and recenty discovered the on/off switch. Since then he has spent hours turning the television on and off & giggling at really trashy daytime soaps

[oliveoil]

cbeebies at 6am in the morning was a godsend so that american survey can shove itself up its own arse imo

mine both loved Teletubbies at that age and that really annoying one that isn't on anymore, Boobah or something

they don't watch much apart from Tom and Jerry atm as most of them drive me insane (apart from Something Special and Come Outside)

[WhenSantaWentQuietlyMad]

No-one rose to the bait then?

She hasn't really got her own TV, or the remote. I treat CBeebies like a drug. Say like coffee during pregnancy - I know i shouldn't really, but sometimes I do and feel a bit naughty for it. And studies seem to say that a little bit of it (say 1/2 hour a day) doesn't do any harm as long as it isn't all the time.

[BarbieLovesKen]

www.randomhouse.co.uk/catalog/extract.htm?command=search&db=main.txt&eqisbndata=0091902606

Pablopatito, if your trying to look into it more - does this help atall?

[BarbieLovesKen]

sorry, dont know what I did there.....