TV for 1 year old

[YelloDaff]

How much TV does your 1 year old watch? My 18 month old doesn’t watch any, I tried a couple of times to get her to watch some Hey Dugee so I could clean the kitchen but she just wasn’t interested, would rather play with toys/ book. Was asked the other day what her favourite programme was and I replied that she didn’t watch any and was given a strange look. She isn’t allowed to watch on smaller screens such as phones or tablets. Are we strange?

My 15 month old watches TV for about 20 mins about twice a week, on the days when I’m flying solo with her, while I’m making her tea and unloading the dishwasher. She loves Ms Rachel on YouTube, which I don’t feel is too bad, and In the night garden (which I hate!). She’s not been interested in anything else (have tried hey duggee, Charlie & Lola and Bluey).

My 1 year old (21 months) doesn’t watch TV either - has zero interest and plays instead. Her preschooler sister watches cartoons, but the baby pays them no attention. My eldest also had no interest until about 2, when one day she became obsessed.

To add, she doesn’t sit down and watch it for that long, but it keeps her contained to the lounge where she will play with her toys and look at the screen intermittently. Otherwise she’s all over the house!

We only do 5 mins of tv a week with our 16 month DS so I can trim his nails whilst he's distracted - otherwise no tv and no looking at phone screens.
I often have the radio or podcasts on in the background to give me something to listen to when he's happy playing by himself.
I might need to introduce one of the tooth brushing videos soon to get him to brush his teeth for a longer amount of time but otherwise we'll stick with no screens until he's 2 and then begin to introduce it.
Completely get that no screen time doesn't work when there are older siblings.

I’m pretty lax on the TV, I’m all for a bit of cocomelon for 10 minutes if I can drink my coffee in peace but favourite TV for a kid that can’t talk properly is a really odd concept. DS is 2.5 and his favourite is the Octonauts ie he asks to watch it, he can also name Paw Patrol characters but that’s a fairly recent development. Oh and tablets/phone - only for very specific circumstances where they must sit still ie on a plane or whilst getting their haircut.

Good tip re. trimming the nails, if only she’d sit still for five minutes! As it is, we manage to trim roughly one nail a day which sort of keeps them at a reasonable length.