Babies and TV

[taliac]

How much is okay? Any? Some as long as its age appropriate / educational? I've researched but can only find scare stories or PR for baby dvds online - does anyone know what the facts are (assuming there are some?)

Any opinions / info appreciated.

I very occasionally put on CBeebies for 20-30 mins in the morning if dd (8mths) has woken up very early or between tea and bath time (maybe 2 times per week in total). I think a little TV is fine but would tend to watch with her so I can join in. She doesn't seem particularly interested at the moment tbh so I'm thinking I might just keep it turned off. She has a great concentration span and can be absorbed in her toys/board books for ages (she once spent 45 mins playing with a jaffa cake box!) - I want to encourage this. She's not crawling yet so I can get things done by just putting her on a playmat near me with some toys (in the bathroom when I shower for example).

If my dd (22 months) is tired and just wants to relax. She likes to watch tv. She has even learnt some Spanish from watching Dora the Explorer! Can that be a bad thing? She also has the speech of an average 3yr old according to my sister's childs speech therapist so it hasn't affected her badly in that way.

I watched tv as a small child and I'm relatively normal and intelligent....

Like DulwichDolly said - trust your instincts.

Mine watched a little as babies, I don't think a small amount is a problem.

The American assoc of Paeds says:"early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant care givers for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills"

This would possibly suggest if you are interacting lots with your kiddiewink a bit of TV is probably ok.

My ds is 21 months and watches no tv. I feel that tv us a waste of the precious time that he has at this stage for learning and exploring. I really don't like the trance like state that some kids get into when watching tv and like somebody said earlier, kids who don't watch tv at a young age have to learn to amuse themselves. Our entire house is pretty childproof and there is a small box of toys in each room, so when I shower, ds gets the run of upstairs with the stairgate shut. If he is pestering me when I am cooking (he usually comes through and says mmmmmm) then I can do most things whilst holding him on the hipseat. Obviously he gets put down if something is too dangerous for him to be so close, but this means he can watch me chopping and cooking and gets to taste little bits of food here and there which I like to think will help foster a good relationship with food for the future. It's all about balance though isn't it. I feel that no tv ever ever is as unbalanced as too much tv so I plan to let him watch a little tv when he is a good bit older, but probably not until he can read.

mawbroon-do you just have the one child?

Yes, only the one so far, but I know what you are thinking!! How will she stop younger ones watching when the older one watches?? Well, my plan is this. When ds is older, we will put a small tv in our (ours, not his) bedroom for ds to watch. He will only be allowed to watch x amount per day (probably something he's chosen already and we have recorded) and not just go in there and surf the channels for hours. If DH wasn't so stubborn, we would have no tv in the livingroom at all. I think the way that most livingrooms are arranged round the tv puts huge importance on tv (even when it's switched off) when it should in fact just be a small part of life.

i've downsized our tv and moved it into another room, think it's about changing focus so it's just not a big deal. I hate it and think it's rubbish but can't bring myself to banish it completely... especially with big brother ...

no-that wasn't my thought!

my thought was that when you have two children-one a 3 or 4 year old maybe and one a tiny baby and you haven't slept properly in days the t.v is like a heaven sent gift!

ditto older kids who have been running around the house screaming and having a go at each other for hours.

you sound a bit, dare i say it..pfb?!

tv is the only way i can get my toddler to calm down in the evening. we watch 20 mins after his bath and without this he would be swinging from the curtains come bedtime. We also watch a DVD sometimes after lunch to give him some quiet time.

I think the government advice is none for the under 3's and then under 1 or 2 hours a day for under 5's, but my DS (18months) watches probably 15 or 20mins of teletubbies a day, and absolutely loves it. I do too, it's the only time i get a nice quiet cup of tea!

And my mum is a consultant child psychiatrist and says a baby watching TV for half an hour a day is not going to cause ADHD or any type of autistic spectrum disorder. Obesity is more of a problem and that's only if they hardly ever move. I think a lot of people who grew up in the 80s/early 90s watched alot of TV when little and most of them seem to be ok! I do find TVs in bedrooms weird though, adult or childrens.

Well, perhaps so with the pfb thing, but when I did full on childminding (often from first thing until after 7pm with another boy ds's age, and a 4 and an 8 year old 5 days a week) we didn't watch any tv then either. DS was still waking in the night and I was whacked. I know it's not the same as having your own kids 24/7 but I reckon if I can do all that with no tv then I can likely cope without it whatever comes along. And with the childminding, there was no packing them off to granny or somebody else taking them off my hands either.

I don't know why you want to stick kids infront of tv, we have it about but dd hardly bothers at all. BUT sometimes it's useful if i want a shower on my own..

I think it is a question of balance tbh. 20 mins of In the night Garden after dd's bath really, really calms her down.

yes i agree - i originally thought of banishing it completely but i quite fancy watching it once in a while and have opted for it not to be a mamouth centrepiece and the focal point of our existence. Have a portable in the conservatory instead.

Agree with filch - when I had one child the tv was never on and I never thought it would be. Rebel mum - if you use the tv when you want a shower on your own, I use it to just let me BREATHE sometimes or when ds2 napping as ds1 doesn't nap anymore but will sit quietly in front of cbeebies or a disney video.
I can't see any signs of ADHD as ds 1 will watch a full nemo or jungle book without budging!
Sorry but I hate it when people with one child say 'I never do this' as if I am a terrible mother for just doing what I need to to manage very lively 2yo and 1yo boys.

which is what i do -i just moderate it and try not to let it creep in - i don't want it to be the centrepiece of our lives though. I'm more concerned about the ideas and the marketing than adhd to bne honest

I dont see why it is a bad thing to have the TV on even if the child is not interested. Sometimes we'll put music channels on the TV such as Magic / Bliss etc, and we'll have a little sing / dance to the music. Most of the time she isn't bothered by the telly and we're playing.
At the CM's the telly will be on sometimes when I go in, and the older kids will be watching it while the younger ones are screaming and running around the table or the garden like loonies, they are not noticing the telvision.
TBH I think that parents who watch an average amount of telly or a lot and then refuse to let their children watch television are like those parents who refuse to let their kids eat even a tiny amount of sweets / chocolates even when the parents scoff their faces with them.
I am living by the "everything is fine in moderation" for my children except underage sex, drugs, smoking and tattoos

If its on all the time its not really moderate though is it.

By moderation I mean that she'll sit and watch FiFi while I cook (much safer IMO than her being in the kitchen and getting scalded, I often spill things myself and would never forgive myself if she were under my feet and got burnt). Then later on, we'll sit and play, and I'll probably have something like a music channel on in the background, or I'll have maybe a documentary on for an hour, she shows no interest, we are either playing together or her by herself and she shows no interest in the television.
On a Sat, we watch a film when she goes to sleep, if she wakes up before it finishes, we continue watching while she's playing, again she's not interested at all (and I'm not talking about 15/18 rated films by the way, sadly on a weekend we often watch a Disney Channel movie )
Is it harming her to see the television works but to know that she doesn't have to watch it?

I'm not having a go Elf, but I think there is evidence that suggests that having the TV (or radio for that matter) on constantly can cause problems with speech development as young children can find it difficult to distinguish the words their parents are saying because of the competing noise source. Imagine trying to learn a foreign language with a tutor with the radio on in the background. I would not be impressed with a childminder who had the TV on all the time!

Ds1 didn't really watch much TV at all until he was over 1, but each subsequent child has watched more I do insist on it being watched for one or two programmes at a time and then turned off so they have to play or otherwise occupy themselves for the rest of the time. I noticed a real increase in the amount they watched when we got Freeview - it's just so easy to put it on if it's available all the time.

Having said that ds1 used to watch countdown with me every day from about 12 months and knew the alphabet by the time he was 2!

oo i'm a bit anti-tv - studies reckon that children who watch more tv do worse at school, I think some say more than 2 hours is bad and definitely tv in bedrooms is bad. Personally i just don't want to encourage it, ideas, propaganda and marketing are awful. My dd put TV on when i wasn't there and was really scared by what she saw, when they're young they can't distinguish between fantasy and reality. Prefer to encourage outdoor play, independant thought and activities to stimulate. But then I only have one child... I think if you're sensible and it's moderate it's not that harmful.

Rebelmum "studies reckon that children who watch more tv do worse at school"

So where did you read this garbage and how exactly did the researchers quantify it? Did they have a control group and did both groups have exposure to exactly the same factors (social, emotional, familial, moral, intrinsic) that would enable a direct mapping of the results?

I grew up watching TV. Sometimes, my brothers would watch 3 hours a day!. Sometimes we would watch none!

Guess what?

We also played outside, we were members of our local library so we read a lot, we can all construct sentences using words with more than two syllables, we have independent thoughts and are able to construct as well as deliver analytical arguments and I have a PhD in Chemistry.

There is a big difference between plonking a child in front of a TV all day and ignoring it as oppose to engaging with a child through play, talk, reading and heaven forbid, watching an interesting programme (for the child) like Thomas the tank engine!

I'm just waiting for some fountain of wisdom to claim that children of the working classes suffer more than those with middle class parents because they watch more TV.

You can't really call it garbage, if they're watching tv then they're not doing they're homework. I would have thought that was fairly obvious lateral thinking.

'garbage' you can tell you watched too much american TV!