Cartoon on non stop?

[newhere989]

Hi there

I wanted to ask if any of you have experienced this. I have an almost 1 y/o and she watches a certain nursery rhymes series on YouTube. It's probably my fault; I introduced her to it when she was a few months old when I found it difficult to settle her and was googling everything to help a baby with colic (though turned out she has a cow's milk allergy).

So she watches this cartoon and cries incessantly if it's not on, screams even a little bit and grabs at me to put it in and looks at the tv and then at me and cries more. Also, she doesn't make a lot of eye contact recently, but she made lots when she was younger (though she wasn't as obsessed with the cartoon back then).

She does play and interact with all her toys but wants the cartoon on in the background.

When we go out, she is fine and enjoys her time out and she does interact with others, though eye contact seems a bit reduced recently. And as soon as we get back in the house, she looks for the cartoon again.

Just wondering if this sounds normal or like a "special interest" of ASD. Any comments are appreciated. Thanks.

It sounds like you need to turn it off.

Completely normal. They tend to latch on to the familiar.

With dd it was the wiggles. (The originals). She would want it on if she was tired or grumpy.

Ds was cars. He would have it on repeat. I hated that smug face.

When I was a child, it was Care Bears

Thank you 🙈 this helps a lot to know.

Just turn it off!

I do turn it off, but she then screams until I turn it back on or we go out. If we're in the house, she wants it on, even though it's just in the background as she's playing away with toys etc.

She'll soon stop.
You need to set boundaries.

It doesn't sound like ASD. It just sounds like normal response of toddlers to TV, especially the more recent videos on youtube, whether by accident or design, some of the content creators have worked out that lots of rapid scene changes, oversaturated colours and zooming in and out is mesmerising to toddlers. See this video for a good summary/comparison with other media (although ignore the OTT commentary - it's not going to rot anyone's brain.)

Just turn it off/cold turkey, she'll whine for a day or two and then she'll forget about it.

And please be careful if you are googling constantly - there is a lot of predatory crap out there scaring parents about autism. There is no need to look for signs of autism in a one year old. Just enjoy your child :)

Thank you.