to let my 28 week old son watch T.V whilst I make lunch/dinner?

[frankieb70s]

It hardly goes on in the day but when I'm making breakfast, lunch and dinner I have started putting on the children's channels for around 20-30 mins at a time, which distracts him. I vowed I would never use the tele as a 'babysitter', but it does make life so much easier when I need to get food prepared. Do/did you?

YANBU. Your child, your rules.

I believe the guidance is no TV before 2 and then no more than 30 minutes a day after that. It's quite hard to do and although I managed it with DS1, I certainly haven't with DS2. He hasn't exploded yet!

My SIL enforced this rule with her DS and now he watches more TV than either of mine, so not sure what that says! I think the main worry is where the TV is on all the time and children aren't getting any other interaction. That can't happen in many households can it?

Oh god I do it's the only way to get DS to sit still while his lunch/tea settles.. Now he's crawling he ends up bringing his food back up if I don't do this

YABU. 20-30 minutes a day is fine; but be careful not to let it fall into a pattern of watching for longer durations. TV is hyper-stimulating for babies (you may not think it is, the way they sit there mesmerised....) and numerous academic studies have shown that too much TV to affect concentration and behaviour in children. Particularly if it's on all the time, in the background etc. They simply lose their ability to concentrate on slower paced things when they're used to fast-paced, flickering, colourful ACTION.

DD (17 months) has a DVD on in the late afternoon for half an hour or so most days. Sanity saver for me (that's when I make her dinner and get the laundry done and so on). Her favourites have been Baby Einstein (I know that sounds smug and PFB, but she loved it) and the Wiggles.

Oh CRAP I meant YANBU!

Lol Scuzz :o

I have visions of a baby rockin out to Slipknot :o

I shall carry on then just for short periods. Shame I can't do the same evenings and weekends when DS1 and DP are home.

DD (who is DC4 ) has never had my undivided attention and hence was probably watching tv at 28 hours old let alone weeks. She seems remarkably normal.

Hmmm Im in two minds here. I never put kids tv on, mainly because I hate most of it. Ive left Sky News and E!News and Wright Stuff on the box as it bored dd rigid. Something I kind of wanted.....I didn't want her to assume it was her toy....

Now I like things like mickey mouse clubhouse and let her have that on the box sometimes for a change then back to sky news.... Equally anything animally always works too....

Dunno why its specifically bad for under 2s....its pretty bad for all ages surely?

I've yet to introduce 14 w/o DD to children's TV, but she watches whatever I put on. She was gripped to a re-run of The Voice today, trying to sing along. She also is partial to a bit of Pointless and The Wright Stuff. She doesn't "watch tv" as such, more just looking at the colours and hearing the sounds. Has no idea what it actually is.

I only haven't put children's TV on yet as I really only turn it on to watch a specific thing.

He does love rocking out bless him :)

I am shocked that people actually worry about this.

Well, there is actual evidence that it might be damaging. No weirder than worrying about lots of other things. A quick Google found this, which looks like a decent overview.

No there isn't. None if the studies are conclusive and only show that large amounts of TV viewiing affect development. They also pre-suppose that were the TV removed, the child would be exposed to stimulation and communication which is sadly not always the case.

The studies do suggest the TV for the under twos certainly does no good and suggest that large amount may do harm (in terms of language development etc), but small amounts (which we are discussing here) do not seem to have an effect either way.

Blimey, I feel like I'm bucking the trend having not let my babies watch t.v till they were nearly 12months, and then my pfb was only allowed to watch the Night Garden because it was the least likely to make him hyperactive and there are no crazy adverts on BBC.
Morning nap was my catch up on jobs time, afternoon nap was chill out time.

NaturalBaby - not every baby sleeps twice a day for a period long enough to get stuff done... you were fortunate, if you have another, you may not be - feel free to swallow your words

YABU to refer to a child as 28 weeks. I have no idea how old that is, and I can't work it out. I often use TV as a babysitter but don't think under 1's need it really.

At that age I used to put DS in a ring sling on my hip and he would "help" me cook (mostly sampling food), he got too heavy for that but he still likes to be lifted up to see what is going on with dinner.I don't think there is anything wrong with letting them watch a bit of TV though, I can't remember when we discovered CBeebies, probably about 7 or 8 months when he could sit up and watch it.

ChippingIn - I had 3 under 3's. My 2yr old and 3yr old now spend way too long watching t.v after lunch because they don't have an afternoon nap any more and I can't physically or mentally keep going from 6am to 8pm. I was not fortunate - it took me 7months to get my pfb into a decent sleep routine. Till then I had 40mins max to get stuff done and spent hours every day trying to get him to sleep.
Despite all that I really didn't see the need to switch the t.v on for any of my babies after reading the recommendations to avoid it for the under 2's. Ds1 was more than happy to sit in a bumbo and watch me do the dishes, ds3 likes nothing better than throwing washing into the washing basket (when I've tipped it out to hang up to dry), and if I wanted a hot drink I went to baby and toddler groups .