Would you be concerned for the baby?

[woofrood]

Would you be concerned/would you think it would constitute neglect if a mum you knew had the TV on in the background all day (baby channel) for her one year old baby? Even when doing other things

Thank you for your reply. It was my health visitor. She gave me an appointment in one month time and told me to take him to the children centre in the meantime.

The person who made the comment was a family member after what the health visitor had told me

Apologies, didn't mean to offend. I'll phrase my post differently next time

@woofrood I'm sorry to hear that you have this worry. Do go to the children's centre. They may have ideas on things you can do to encourage your baby to meet his milestones - things like particular toys that you can use at playtime there or maybe even borrow (ours used to have a toy library). Ignore your family member. If your baby has developmental delay it isn't because you've got your television switched on. Your baby may not even have developmental delay - he's still very little and it could just be that he's taking his milestones in his own sweet time. At twelve months he's got so much to take in every day and so much to process every night when he's asleep and everyone babies included does this differently. But if as time goes on it starts to look like he's struggling to get there, it's good to have some kind of note as to when you/his HV began to notice, just so you can put together a plan if necessary.

Sorry for being harsh on you, OP. But hopefully the reaction you've had shows it's ABSOLUTELY not your fault that your baby is meeting milestones a little bit later. It's really genuinely neither your fault nor the TV's fault.

Some health visitors (and I emphasise not all) aren't always that helpful or constructive and they're not all brilliantly trained. You've had some good advice here though and there are lots of resources online about how to encourage child development.

My kids used to like sitting in the laundry basket also. Have a pic of one son fast asleep in it, sucking his thumb. Grandchildren also did it and I would put pots n pans on the floor with wooden spoons to stir and bang with.