Screen time for toddler

[freklefacexo]

Looking for some opinions just out of curiosity. I have a 21 month old DD . I’m very aware of the concerns about too much screen time. How much is too much? DH works long hours , I’m alone with her a lot and obviously need to cook and clean and other things around the house so I find myself putting tv on for her during those times. But then I worry is it too much? Is it damaging to her? She really likes cocomelon, but I see a lot of negative comments about that show in particular. Just wanted to see what others think ? Any better alternatives ?

Ultimately you have to make up your own mind about it.
The WHO says less than an hour for kids under 5.

https://www.aoa.org/news/clinical-eye-care/public-health/screen-time-for-children-under-5

....and an initiative in Germany suggests no screens at all until age 3

https://bildschirmfrei-bis-3.de/en/why-screen-free/

Ultimately it's your decision. We don't have a TV or tablets anyway.

If she's watching anything though, try and avoid high paced, very visually stimulating things like Cocomelon. Search on Google for a list of "slower", calmer shows.

Op, honestly, don’t overthink it. Despite the posts above, we are all just trying to do our best as busy and exhausted parents and we need to get things done.

In our house we do a mixture of things, but my kids do also have tv. I don’t let them watch my phone, and ipad is only out for things like plane journeys or hospital stays. But we do have tv, and i’ve also taken my 4 year old to the cinema a few times.

Not all screen time is created equal. Cocomelon not great but a lot better than letting her loose on YouTube Kids watching Unboxings, which some 2.5 year olds are allowed, that’s for sure. Curate what she has and it’s fine. CBeebies for example is an easy and nice one.

As a child I’m sure you had loads of screen time? 90s and 00s was prime hands-off screen-on parenting. I watched Playdays then Neighbours with my mum every week day of my pre-school years 😄 don’t worry too much.

Primary schools teach kids using massive screens from reception when they are 4.

This too! They use YouTube eg BlazerFresh in reception to learn about patterns etc. Screens are inescapable.

We are quite relaxed in that; screens are an inevitable part of life. We did find cocomelon was really stimulating and addictive though. If she is so engrossed we can’t get her attention, we no longer allow her to watch it and that includes coco. Her general self regulation has improved since we watch lower stimulation programmes. We try & watch films too rather than loads of short episodes. Things that have been quite good are all Julia Donaldson on bbc I player (snail & the whale, zog, tabby McTat, smeads and smoos), bed time stories bbc I player, abney & teal bbc I player and then things like Toy Story/monsters inc/elemental/bluey on Disney +. She probably watches a longer programme or a couple of short ones a day when it’s just me her & her baby sis home.

One thing is, ensuring she has accessible toys. If she can play by herself you’ll not need to rely on the screen so much plus its skills for life to be able to do a bit of play by herself.

Am sure some people won't like this comment but no screens at all is best at that age and it is possible. Your child can be with you to 'help' while you cook and clean, if needed, or will learn to play alongside you while you do those things. We raised our son that way when he was young (during lock downs too) - it is possible, just not the easy way! He's now an amazing kid - loves reading, playing, cooking, drawing and while we have limited screen time now too, he isn't particularly interested. He's definitely not one of those children you see incessantly asking for their parents phone or - God forbid! - on a tablet in a restaurant unable to socialise.

Cocomelon is utter garbage but I wouldn’t have any issue sticking on something not so manic and vaguely educational for maybe 30 minutes in the morning so you can get yourself ready and same again in the evening so you can prep dinner. Cbeebies has good content if you’re looking for inspiration. I know I know what the WHO says but if you think about it kids with older siblings rarely get away with no screentime at all because it’s less realistic to ban a 6YO from TV in case their toddler/baby siblings see it and I don’t think you see a marked difference between youngests vs. eldests. Just everything in moderation and choose higher quality content!

Cocomelon is garbage. I never put on anything with (imo) horrible creepy CGI, stupid annoying OTT voice acting

I did the Julia Donaldson films, Here comes a digger/fire engine, Tractor Ted, classic postman pat, clangers reboot, balamory etc most of the cbeebies shows with real people and slow pacing. Baby club, toddler club are nice ones
Nature documentaries are great, too.
I even found some episodes of Bluey too hyper and was selective.

Personally I couldn't stand anything on that I couldn't sit and watch myself so paw patrol etc banned 😅

Oh I just remembered, if they like nursery rhymes try "golden nursery rhymes vhs" on YouTube or "wow that's what I call nursery rhymes dvd"
Or the wiggles of course.
Better and has real kids and people singing

At 21 months it's very probably better for her to be bored than be glued to Cocomelon.

Don’t overthink it OP. The TV was on all day long when I was a kid in the 80s and 90s and I don’t see that it’s done me much harm (although letting me have unfettered access to a TV in my room at 10 probably wasn’t my parents’ wisest move. 10 is too young for Eurotrash).

We have a toddler and sometimes the TV is on while he’s playing in the lounge, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s a kids show, Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes he watches, sometimes he ignores it. Right now he’s occasionally glancing at the Dinosaurs and sharks in Life On Our Planet in between looking at books and chatting and playing. We don’t have (and don’t have any plans to buy) a tablet or iPad and he does not currently know that our phones are capable of showing TV shows.

Oh we also have a rule of no tv an hour before bed.

I so miss the 90s.

Eurotrash was ace 😂

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I'm stricter on what mine watches rather than length of screen time - I don't like Cocomelon, but most stuff on Cbeebies is fine. Mine loved Bounce Patrol and Blippi when he was little, but I have YouTube kids set up so he can only watch channels I've approved. Older shows like Thomas, Fireman Sam etc are better than anything very fast moving.

Tbh we had the TV on Cbeebies pretty much constantly between age 1-2 because of lockdown, and he's fine!

But did you work, during lockdowns? Because if you were both WFH how on earth did you do that with a toddler without screens? 😂

To add, we don’t put on anything as brightly coloured, high-pitched and frenetic as Cocomelon mostly because I can’t stand it. We like the new adventures of Paddington on Netflix (he likes the song anyway). There’s something quite cute with little bears on Netflix too. New adventures of Winnie The Pooh on Disney. Some nature stuff. Some nursery rhymes on YouTube. He enjoys the occasional bit of ‘cat TV’ on YouTube too. Likes the birds.

He was in nursery during the day but outside of that (many, many hours) we did as I described. Not easy but definitely worth it and wouid do it again.

Ahh. But what did you do during lockdown while nursery was closed?

We don't do shows with episodes or YouTube at all. My DS watches a film or nothing. And if he's watching a film I insist that he sits and watches it, if he starts playing alongside I turn the telly off. I don't want the TV to become background noise that he depends on while playing. So we either play or have chill time with a movie. He is great at this now. Has an amazing attention span for his age, just turned 2yo, we go to the cinema regularly and he sits no bother. He understands when I turn it off it's time to play. I found his behaviour atrocious when I let him watch episodes of things, like never ending shorts. Horrendous.

When you don't put the TV on they do learn to amuse themselves.

Cocomelon is absolute brain rot. Most of the shows on cbeebies are decent (Bing can go to hell though).

My favourites that the kids love/loved too are

Prime video: Kipper, Tumbleleaf, Tractor Ted, Button Moon

BBC: Clangers, Twirlywoos, Justin's House, Baby Club, Bluey, Postman Pat, Bob the Builder, the old Fireman Sam

Netflix: GIant Jack, The adventures of Paddington

I just try and avoid fast paced, bright coloured CGI with silly voices and too many sound effects.

I want there to be a story arc or simple learning concepts like Twirlywoos.

Cocomelon is awful. I think of you're going to watch TV it's best to put actual CBeebies on (i.e the channel, so it changes to different programmes each time and they don't just become a zombie watching it).

I'll be honest - my DD has definitely watched too much TV in her life. She's 5 now, and we've started to be much stricter about TV, and got her a Yoto player. It's taken a while to get used to it (lots of moaning - not much fun for either of us!) but we're a month in now and I'm really glad we did it. Just wish we'd done it sooner!