Screen time battle at 19 months

[Foodie5]

My boy is coming up to 19 months and now that he’s starting to communicate what he wants more he’s got into the habit of asking for a cracker or a biscuit in front of the tv, which I’m fine with. But the last couple of days he has refused to get into his highchair in the kitchen for breakfast before nursery, and tries to grab some of the food and take it into the living room. He did this last night as well, I didn’t want to give in so he didn’t end up having a full meal - just crackers so I thought he must be full from nursery. It happened again this morning and I finally gave in after about 15 minutes of trying as he was clearly hungry and ate a lot. I’m fine with him watching a bit of tv (it’s about 20 mins before nursery and 30 mins after, he’s full time) but I really don’t want him to get into the habit of watching tv whilst he’s eating. He does it occasionally when he is poorly or really tired but more often than not he was fine with eating without it. I feel like the battle with screen time has already started, at the weekends we try to get out of the house most of the day as I find that as much as I try to coax him into playing in his room etc, he asks for the tv a lot! He’s very active, loves being outdoors, books etc but does get easily distracted by the tv. I don’t put it on by the way, he will walk to the stair gate and ask to go downstairs, go to the sofa plonk himself on it and grab the remote! I was just wondering if anyone has any advice/been in the same situation? It never seemed like much of a problem until he discovered Cocomelon 🤣 Thank you

Unfortunately it can start to be a slippery slope. My son also chooses TV as the number one thing to do and it makes me sad that with the thousands of pounds worth of toys he has, that's what he wants to do all the time. We actually have zero screen time days now, but your little one may be too young to understand.

He is just a baby, just don’t turn the tv on in the morning if it is causing issues with hun eating breakfast, give it a few days and your new routine will be established. If you like the background noise you could always try putting the radio on while he has breakfast.

Btw when I mean don’t turn it on. I mean make sure he isn’t able to turn it on.

Turn it off at the plug so the remote doesn't work. Tell him it's not working and above all never give in after 15 minutes as you teach him that he'll get his own way eventually

I have a 19 month old too🖐🏼
Those shows are literally designed to be stimulating so you really have to be in control, I made the mistake of putting hey duggee on earlier when we got home from nursery and it made me want to be sick, I had to turn the fucking thing off. Waaaaaay to much flashing and colour. I usually go for an in the night garden or something more chill.

When ours has been insistent on watching TV I just don’t put it on for a week or two. Pretend to press the remote and then I shrug and say ‘doesn’t work’ then get something out to play with. He doesn’t really care then.

RE food: He eats off my plate mostly, tonight actually the tike would only eat off my plate if he sat on the table in front of me like a little table elf. So be it. I’m not dying on that hill😂.

Do you sit and eat with him?

He isn’t even 2yo.
You’re the parent, you are deciding what happens.

If you dint want him to eat whilst watching TV, then don’t switch the TV on and wit for him to come to the kitchen.
It will take a few goes but he will learn.

What????

Errr… don’t let him. And put that remote out of reach! You are the adult, you call the shots.

To be honest I would probably just advise going cold turkey and cutting out the tv all together for a while. Then when he’s adjusted to that you can gradually introduce a small amount that you’re happy with. I know how easy it is to slip into bad habits but as others have said you’re the parent so you get to decide and trust me it’ll be so much easier now than when he’s older

You're the parent. Parent your child.

The remote needs to be kept out of reach

We went complete cold turkey on the TV a couple of months ago with my then 17 month old DS. He only used to watch a bit here and there, but he started wanting it on more and more and it became a bit of a nightmare, especially as he would look for it for comfort if he was upset. They aren’t able to understand why it needs to be limited at that age, so we just took all remotes away and rode out a few difficult days, then he just stopped asking, despite it still being sat in exactly the same spot. He watches some CBeebies on my phone in the car so I don’t feel like too much of a monster! We’ll reintroduce the TV at some point, but currently it’s easier being completely off limits.

Thanks all for the replies! Made me realise I was being too soft! Refused to put the TV on this morning and seems to have done the trick, honestly didn’t realise it would be that simple 🤦🏼‍♀️

Good for you, well done. Sometimes we all need a little nudge in the right direction

@Foodie5

Thanks all for the replies! Made me realise I was being too soft! Refused to put the TV on this morning and seems to have done the trick, honestly didn’t realise it would be that simple 🤦🏼‍♀️

Well done, sometimes we can't see the obvious answer when we're in the thick of it! Enjoy your screen free time.

I have no idea if this is just facebook nonsense or genuinely true. But read this about coco melon - www.facebook.com/100000884000460/posts/5297554436950637/?d=n

A child psychologist also deemed it damaging. www.instagram.com/p/CWG-VsXrk5t/

Personally I’m avoiding!

@Perpop it’s true, it’s the same dopamine spike we get from scrolling Facebook or Instagram it’s the toddler equivalent

@FTEngineerM it’s scary eh? Just going to put my phone down for a while….

@Perpop

I have no idea if this is just facebook nonsense or genuinely true. But read this about coco melon - www.facebook.com/100000884000460/posts/5297554436950637/?d=n

A child psychologist also deemed it damaging. www.instagram.com/p/CWG-VsXrk5t/

Personally I’m avoiding!

A lot of kids programmes are like this... I used to stop my child watching anything that was over stimulating. We used to watch kids stuff from the 1970's and 1980's... It was so much calmer.

😦