When did your babies start watching TV?

[MustBeAWeasly]

I'm just wondering because my dd is 14 months and never watched and kids TV. She'll glance up when we're watching something and she's watched parts of the odd pixar movie when she's been sick or upset. I'm not against cartoons I just don't see what she could be getting out of them at this age and I'd rather not be stuck watching Mr tumble when right now she'll happily sit and play with me or by herself.

Anyway I'm because I mentioned this in a mum group I went to and they all said she was missing out because those shows help them with speech, language, and lots of other things and I'm basically just not letting her watch them because I don't want to watch them. Which has made me feel a bit selfish.
Should I hold off until she's old enough to actually ask or start putting some on?

[Eminybob]

What? Your friends are crackers! Babies that age don’t need to watch tv and as long as you are chatting to her, engaging with her and doing plenty of activities she will learn all the speech and language she needs.

[Eminybob]

That said, I’m not anti tv and although 8 month old ds2 isn’t interested in the slightest, ds1 would love watching a bit of telly at that age.

[OKBobble]

My 17 year old has never really watched until recently. The other mums are crackers. Ignore them!

[Echobelly]

I don't think they miss out on anything!

DD didn't watch telly until she was nearly 2, luckily she wasn't a very active/running around little one, so (rather to my surprise) we didn't really need to use it before then, nor was she that interested in it. DS I assumed would start much younger because he would see his sister watching, but I'm not sure he saw much before about 18 months.

I think this, combined with the fact that I regularly forgot to bring things to 'distract them' when they were small and we were going out I think has helped them be quite good while travelling or in restaurants and not needing entertainment constantly

[Snipples]

My DD doesn't "watch tv" as such but we have baby songs and rhymes on most of the day. She's learning words and colours and numbers. She can do the actions to heads shoulders knees and toes and she dances when her faves come on. She's 13 months old.

To me that's fine, where it is problematic is shoving them down in a pram or high chair in front of the tv and not interacting at all. Some of my friends kids have iPads and they're not even 18months yet. We don't do that.

[SnuggyBuggy]

I don't think they really have the attention span. I sometimes watch a bit of the news and my DD glances at it but just goes back to her toys. We sometimes watch the alphabet or number song on YouTube but just a short clip.

[icelollies]

My son started to be interested in short nursery rhyme cartoons at about 2 (before then he would like to listen to the music, but had no interest in watching). Now at 3 he will watch short cartoons (like CBeebies), but usually only when he’s tired - he doesn’t like to sit still!!
Ignore the others mums, your child will pick up language from you more than TV! Sounds like they are feeling guilty for some reason?

[Nat6999]

When ds was a baby, we often had Cbeebies on during the day, he didn't really start watching properly until he was about 18 months but loved the music & songs. He had a collection of Fimbles toys & by the time he was 1 could point out the Fimbles on TV. He picked up words, one of his first words was Bala which was his word for Balamory. I know in Mumsnet land television is considered as bad as drugs for babies but coping with a disabled husband meant we spent a lot of time indoors.

[Yogurtcoveredricecake]

We've only just started watching it since he was about 17 months. It's never on as background noise but I use it to help distract while he waits for his evening meal and after his bath. It acts as a bit of a chill out time as he's non stop and rarely sits still for long!

[Lazypuppy]

My dd properly started watching around 13/14months.

18months now. She loves lots of the cbeebies shows,knows the words they say,dances and does the actions to the songs. Says bye bye to all the characters before she goes to bed.

We watch a lot of tv anyway as a family

[Russkispy]

My DD is 2 now and hasn't watched" TV ever. Doesn't know any cartoons, kids programmes, cartoon characters etc and I don't even know when and how to introduce her to it if at all. She doesn't know what IPhone or IPad is either. We always play, read the books, go to the parks or play in the garden. She's bilingual and understands both languages but mostly replies in English. She knows colours and numbers and counts till 10 in random order. Maybe I'll just leave her be and carry on the way things are.

[CrackOn]

Mine has been addicted to screens since teeny tiny. I had to actually ban TV in the house from about four months onward because I was concerned she was too interested in it. She'll still watch avidly now if allowed to. Count yourself lucky.

[LauraPalmersBodybag]

A friend is a speech and language therapist, she says there’s no educational impact for babies and small toddlers. Ditto electronic toys, etc. Speech is apparently learnt through face to face.

Think my dd activity started to watch tv at 18 months, something like that. Nothing wrong with a bit of tv but I don’t think it teaches babies anything and I tried to hold it at bay for as long as possible.

[notso]

As a newborn DC1 used to stop crying when the Neighbours theme song came on! Does that count?

[SmartPlay]

A baby can't learn anything from a TV, their brains don't work that way!

My children never watched TV when small, I also never had the TV on when they were in the room and awake. With my daughter I started watching the occasional movie (one a month) from the age of 9 (years, not months) and more often from 10. Prior to that she was only allowed to watch something on very rare occasions (like the olympics) from about 6 or 7 years old.
My son will be 2 in August and has never watched TV and won't in the foreseeable future.

[MustBeAWeasly]

OK I don't feel like I'm depriving her now! I have no issue with TV at all but she's really happy getting on with her own things. We either play together or when I'm busy she'll just Potter around whatever room I'm in so I never felt the need to put any on.
And no I figure why force it. Its like giving juice to a baby who loves water 🤷‍♀️
We do have songs on constantly in the background, a mix of songs she does at her baby class and my music so I guess she's learning from that.

@notso 😂 absolutely I'd have it on constantly!!

[Lazypuppy]

@SmartPlay

A babycan'tlearn anything from a TV, their brains don't work that way!

I beg to differ, i certainly didnt teach her the baby club song actions, she learnt them from watching and copying, same as she watches and copies me and her dad with various things

[mindutopia]

I don't think my eldest watched any tv at all before 2 and even then, it was very limited (like when we needed her just to sit and be quite on a plane, or when she was ill and I just needed to get something done). Maybe by 3 she would watch it in the mornings on the weekends. She's 6 and watches at least a little bit of tv most days (on a rainy weekend day, it could be a lot!). But my 17 month old has never watched tv and I can't honestly imagine him being all that interested.

[SmartPlay]

@Lazypuppy
"I beg to differ, i certainly didnt teach her the baby club song actions, she learnt them from watching and copying"

Of course they can copy movements. They can copy them anywhere, so there is no need for watching TV for that.
They can even parrot things being said by the TV. That's not learning, however. In order to learn, one needs to understand, and this can't be provided by a TV for young children. OP for instance mentioned language development - for this a TV is actually bad, because a TV doesn't communicate with a child. Everything that's not real people is even worse, because the movement of their mouths doesn't correspond to what's being said, which is a crucial part in speech development.
Add to that the fact that the origin of the sound is at the "wrong" place and the way a picture on the TV is produced in a way that doesn't correspond to the way a human sees a picture.

[avocadoincident]

There is no evidence that tv aids speech as it is not interactive. In fact evidence shows that screen exposure can be counterproductive to cognitive development on the basis of it can damage the child's attentional system.

Even background tv can interfere with a child's ability to sustain an activity in a focused and organised manner. It is also linked to sleeping difficulties, reading less, negatively associated with a parent's responsiveness and delays in language acquisition and learning retention.

American Association of Paediatrics say no screen time for under 2 even though many programmes are targeted to this age group.

[SmartPlay]

@avocadoincident clap Thanks for talking sense!

[UnderTheTree]

They are not missing out OP.

When our kids were little we lived in a country where there was few kids tv programmes and we didn't have sky, in the days pre iPads, Netflix etc so unless the 6pm news counts other they got odd video or a programme that was shown early morning but by that point they were toddlers.

Early 20s now, seemed to have survived

[avocadoincident]

@SmartPlay when I had a notification that I had been mentioned on MN I thought oh god, someone thinks I sound like a lunatic.

Everything in moderation is the answer overall but babies do not need or benefit from tv. Sometimes they'll see it, that's life but I certainly wouldn't be putting mine in front of it. (Until child two comes along and I need to use it as a tactical tool)

[SmartPlay]

@avocadoincident "when I had a notification that I had been mentioned on MN I thought oh god, someone thinks I sound like a lunatic."

Haha, sorry for disappointing you, but chances are good someone else will do it ;)