Is 7 months old too young for screens?

[newmum234]

Is there anything suitable for a 7 month old baby to watch on a screen and even if there is, do you think 7 months is too young for screens anyway? What age did you let your DC start watching things on a screen?

I have the TV on sometimes whilst feeding DS and noticed he finds it really interesting - but at the same time I felt I should probably have turned it off as he’s so young!

I’d be interested to know people’s thoughts...

I had the tv on whilst I breastfed- not sure how “into” line of duty my baby was but it was on.
Never handed them a screen at such a young age but yes I’d have the tv on.

Personally I think it's too young.

I used to sit our son in front of the washing machine. He loved it.

Babys that age love watching telly, I think it's the movement and the brightness.
They'll happily watch the News, but favourites are football and stuff with movement. Interestingly they also enjoy watching clothes in a washing machine.

I'm sure mine were a lot older before I let them watch Cbeebies.

Needs must in a pandemic - my 10 month old has watched more tv than I’d like, but I’d assumed that my friends and family would be able to come over to our house and give me 15 minutes’ break from time to time...

Hey Duggee is short and fun. Like others have said though, anything bright will catch their eye. We watched a lot of sky news during the presidential election coverage!

The tv is off during mealtimes, though. Too much distraction.

Lots of studies about screen time and children showing not until 2years and then very limited is best. But I think screen on while you’re otherwise engaged with a 7 month old is fine. The studies I think are more about dcs watching unattended.
Happy to be corrected.

To be honest I’d enjoy watching your own tv shows for as long as possible as the time comes when you can’t watch certain things or they demand to watch their programmes. They like the colours and movement at that age but I wouldn’t be sitting them in front of it when they could be playing with toys instead.

The tv was for me til after they turned about 18mo. At that point we started watching bits of the Bedtime Hour or the odd Peppa Pig together in the day. Dc1 loved Pointless, which was my daily favourite.

With dc2 they watched stuff earlier mainly because if something went on the telly for dc1 then it usually piqued dc2 interest.

Screen time should be limited/absent until 2 years.
As a young baby lots of chat and face to face interaction is important for language acquisition

As a young baby lots of chat and face to face interaction is important for language acquisition

The news readers do face to face for language acquisition they also speak very clearly. I do laugh but one of my kids was in a bouncer fascinated by the News. Youd have thought they were taking in every word.

Omg I let my 8 month old watch cebeebies for about 2 hours (in small chunks) every day! He loves it and I’m currently pregnant and sick so it’s a win win.

I’m not a negligent mum, I make all his food from scratch and spend hours playing with him but this thread is making me

We are watching hey duggee right now

I mean, my DH is a doctor and my DM is an academic in early child hood development/education (published on the subject and a registered nursery nurse too) and neither have expressed any concern at a bit of screen time so it can’t be THAT bad surely

Agree with others- babies will watch whatever's on. Watch what you want until they're old enough to ask for something else!

I used to put my baby in a bouncer and put Baby TV in for them so I could get on with some stuff.
I also spent lots of time doing all the other things but it was also good for me to have a clean house and cooked food and some screen time helped with that.
I wouldn’t give them a tablet or anything like that at that age as it seems to be a bit more intense and closer to the eyes.

My son liked teletubbies as a baby.

I gave my dd my phone with YouTube nursery rhymes from around the age of 8 months to enable me to change her nappy. It was the only way I could keep her still enough!

Yes, studies show it is best to avoid screens altogether until after the age of 2. We do some zooming with family with the youngest but no TV.

My tv is on in the background all day, but its tv for me though. The only thing I specifically put on for him are nursery rhymes on YouTube, on an Ipad, held above his head whilst hes laying down to get him to stay the f*&k still during nappy changes...

Hes just coming up to 8 months, I forgot to add.

Short amounts of time watching baby sensory videos or nursery rhymes etc. isn't going to do any long term harm and I do this with my 7 month old. Majority of time is spent with toys or on walks etc.

Hey Bear Baby Sensory on YouTube.
(Particularly the dancing veggies)

My son started watching it at 6 months . Now at 16 months, he will pick up my phone or the remote and say 'Ta', which means he wants the dancing veggies on 🤣

My eldest was a baby when CBeebies launched. I used to put it on all day and when my next baby came along we just continued with that. Now they are adults, on in full time employment and the other just waiting to go to uni next year. I rarely watch TV so after they started school it became less of a thing for it to be on during the day. By the time my next was born I didn't bother putting it on.

studies show it is best to avoid screens altogether until after the age of 2 I’m sure, studies probably also show that zero cakes until 20 is best. Life gets in the way, we are human not just mothers, sometimes we need the tv on, sometimes we need 20mins to make dinner whilst our child watches some mr tumble. Considering the majority of kids watch tv I’m not sure what the detrimental results are meant to be.

I'm not super strict about screen time. My 6 and 3 yos watch Disney movies or dance workouts on YouTube quite a lot at the moment. Not all day long, but fairly frequently. There isn't much else to do tbf!

But, for me I think 7 months is a little young. I also quite often had it on in the background when mine were babies, but neither of them really watched it till they were about a year old. Then dc1 loved cbeebies. dc2 loved Cars from about 18 mo and still only watches Cars now he is 3. Yes, that is 18 long months of me having to watch the same fecking characters 😭.

I actually think I'd hold off in your case, as otherwise it's going to be a very long slog of Baby TV and Cbeebies for you! Watch This Morning while you still can!

Also though, I don't think it's the end of the world if children are watching short things on tv at a younger age just now as they are missing out on classes. That said, I think you would probably need to choose one or the other; have it on in the background OR let her watch her own programs. I probably wouldn't do both iyswim.