Tv and babies

You have the right idea. How is tummy time in the morning though? Afternoon always better for us

It's great for babies to sit and watch daily life going on, mum cooking, dad cleaning, siblings playing, whatever. Far better for them than being sat in front of a screen.

I think there is a happy medium. A short burst of TV or radio while your baby is happily engaged on their playmat is probably fine. Sitting your baby in front of the TV hour after or hour or constantly having the radio on is not. If you are directly engaging with your baby (reading, playing, singing etc.) there shouldn't be other background noise as they supposedly can't cope with this. From what I've read the issue with TV is more to do with what it replaces rather than it being detrimental in itself. For example, an hour of television might replace an hour of reading and playing together so your baby will start to miss out on hours of interaction if this goes on long term.

I wouldn’t worry about having your attention pulled from baby.. what do you think happens if you have multiple DC? It is not physically possible to give each one your undivided attention at all times. She will be fine, give yourself a break and stick an episode of your fave show on.

Nurseries do not have 'audio' wallpaper. i am horrified by the number of people who have tv or radio on in the background all the time .i do not think it is good atall

She’s 5 months old, she doesn’t give a shit whether you’re staring at her or at Netflix.
what the heck? of course it makes a difference!!

She’s 5 months old, she doesn’t give a shit whether you’re staring at her or at Netflix.

I’m well impressed you’ve lasted this long without watching a bit of telly or whatever while she has a roll around on her playmat to be honest. I’d have gone mad.

I used to tell mine “you have a bit of you time” and sit on the settee next to the playmat and pop a bit of Friends on. Bloody miss mat leave!

I frequently had the tv on while on maternity leave. I've never watched so much of the news! It wasn't baby tv, it was for me, DDs never gave it a second glance. I think I'd have gone a bit mad with only my own voice to listen to. I still talked to DDs, I tended to have the news on so it wasn't a drama where I needed to follow the story. So I'd listen a bit, then tune it out, then go back to it etc.

Yes people have managed without screens for millennia, but those people were doing work around the home and looking after multiple children. Babies were often dumped in a safe space (pen type thing) and left there without as much as Blippi to watch. Or they'd just watch their mothers cook and clean the home. Wealthy mothers just got a nanny to look after the children. At no point over the last 2000 years has it been the norm for mothers to feel they should spend all day every day lying on a mat playing with their baby.

Your baby's future education isn't going to suffer if you stick on This Morning and have a coffee.

Give yourself a break and put the TV on if you want to. It's not like you're sticking a tablet in your baby's face.

I am strict with screen time for my older kids, they hardly have any during the week and are allowed to watch some at the weekend....but the TV is basically always off, never on in background.

But if I'm home with my baby I'll sit and watch TV for a bit. When she was little she'd roll around and do tummy time etc. Now she can sit she plays with toys while I sit with her in the floor and watch TV. She's completely disinterested in TV.

All my babies accompanied me through hours of box sets when they were newborns and I was feeding them as well.

At that age mine would still breastfeed
and cuddle for a significant amount of time in mornings and evenings so i definitely had tv or audiobook on for myself to keep me entertained (not kids tv). Even when playing they didn’t show any interest at that age - can’t remember exactly but imagine i also sometimes had it on with them turned the other way from it. I am a person that likes background tv or audiobooks but have stopped the tv completely once they were interested in it to avoid them seeing too much - put it on at nap time whilst doing chores. Over about 18 months they started watching some in the mornings due to the early starts and sometimes while we are cooking dinner.

Do what you want in regards to the baby tbh, but I do feel like you're being a bit tough on yourself. I would have gone mad with small kids if I hadn't had Radio 4 or LBC or some other talk radio on in the background to keep me company. I still alternate between these in the day when I'm home alone to feel less lonely... if you want some stimulation while you're with the baby it's absolutely fine to have something on. You won't be failing the baby and you won't go mad.

Pop the radio, an audiobook or podcast on and enjoy listening to it whilst playing with your baby/singing along. It’s great for a baby’s development. That’s why basically all baby classes are so music based. It’ll help you enjoy your time at home with baby and will help baby with their development. Enjoy!

I can’t stand background TV. My parents have it on dawn until dusk and I find it quickly overstimulating and distracting. So neither DC have ever been exposed to that. Love the radio though, never even considered it potentially problematic.

DC1 didn’t sit and watch TV until 2ish. DC2 (4.5 months) is pretty regularly exposed to Octonauts or Go Jetters or Numberblocks when DC1 is having his tv time. I’m not so bothered this time round, life is too short.

You are completely correct, children that age do not need screens. Given the links between screen time and autism I would avoid completely until older.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2788488

We have always usually had TV on in the background since dd was born, she's 14 months now. Not children's stuff, just the usual This Morning, the news etc

She has very little interest in TV herself and has actually enjoyed adverts more than any Cbeebies or whatever I've sometimes shown her. She is drawn to the music.

But she still loves books and playing etc, I wouldn't say it's affected her, it's just background noise really.

Mine’s at secondary now but when she was a newborn I watched TV when I was doing those mega-long evening feeds. But then when they petered out I found myself not watching much TV. And then it broke. Think it was about three years until we got a new one! She was about three before she had screens. The abuse from other people when they found out was bizarre!

Who cares? At 5 months they won't care anyway!

i also have read that number of books to my baby who loved and still loves reading but we also had tv time - probably an hour to an hour and half a day. My baby automatically started using baby sign language day to day from watching ms Rachel and has excellent speech for her age and can also understand everything. So it’s incredibly hard to ascertain any impact of a lack of screen time as she also loves reading.

i would consider myself reasonably strict on screen time but my DB kids watch loads of tv and always have and they are all very advanced - their 7 year old is doing 11 year old maths and reading for example so I don’t think it has a detrimental impact tbh.

studies are very flawed as parents who sit their kids in front of tv all day are unlikely to be putting any time into their kids so obviously those kids will have detrimental outcomes.

I didn't have the TV on at all really for the first couple of years of my twins' life, but it wasn't because I was worried about their screen time; it was more that TV didn't really factor into my life back then.
Both had occasional time on screens from around 3, but we've always been pretty active (although my health conditions get in the way of that!).
We've got a pretty good balance these days.

I think it depends on what the norm was before. DH and I were never a couple to have the TV on unless we were actively watching it. Our TV is in the front room and we spend most of the daytime in the back room/kitchen dining room open plan space. I know that's different in a lot of friends and families houses, it's just on like background noise.
I don't think it's good for baby's brain to be exposed to constant flashing lights and fast moving images. Like any screen use it should be limited. Seeing the way DS's eyes moved when he did occasionally see it was pretty odd, totally glued and rapidly flickering like some sort of comedy cat watching a tennis match type thing.
I do use TV for him now he's 18mo, but it's 30-40 mins max whilst I'm doing essential chores and then it goes off. Equally a phone with a kids show on we resorted to when all ill and looking after him was ridiculously hard, but I only do it when absolutely essential like keeping him entertained waiting for an appointment or a long journey.
Radio though - I think that's fine and often had it on when DS was a baby. Music is good for brain development!

It's completely up to you what you choose to do and you don't need to justify.

All I will say though is that I refused to let my 1st watch TV at all for the first 10 months even turning his back to it if it was on. People thought I was nuts. Then we let him have a little bit, one of his first words was Duggee. Now at 3 he's obsessed with the TV and I am constantly having to distract him or he asks to watch it.

My 2nd has been around the TV since birth and at 15 months currently has absolutely no interest in it at all. So it can be child dependent.

For me, I generally put music on over the TV during the day. But I don't think there is any harm in TV.

The sooner you can start building a solid Bluey addiction the better imo.

I found the days very long when I had a young baby, I’ll be honest, so don’t make it harder for yourself.

I’m sure she’s getting loads of good interaction from you as well - talking, playing, singing, getting out of the house.

You don’t need to be interacting with her constantly. It took me a while to get my head around that - I felt guilty if I wasn’t giving DS some meaningful interaction at all times. But just watching every day life is education for babies too.