Watching TV

robbyutd

When can my 7-month-old start watching TV? She is fascinated by any electronic devices already but we keep her away for them all as we're not sure her eyes are ready for them...

pwurple

Focusing for too long on anything can cause eye fatigue or eye strain. No evidence that TV is any particular higher risk than anything else (books for example).

It's not great for kids to be inactive for hours a day, rather than anything to do with their eyes.

uck51js9zml2yt

reports I read recommend no TV until they are 4 ( easier said than done) as they don't relate speech to what they hear on TV and are slower in talking.

kids learn by seeing the words formed by our mouths and hearing the sound.

Barracuda1

How about giving them toys to stimulate the brains

dollybird2

Is there any particular reason/research that is stopping you from allowing her to watch tv? Is the tv turned off when she is in the room?

I can only speak from experience, I would have the tv on in the house when doing housework. I put on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, she looks at it, but isn't plonked in front of it. It's more background noise in the living room while most of the housework is in the kitchen/utility room area.

Television is a part of most people's daily life, I would not have an issue with my child watching tv, but not for a long period of time (an hour +) that amounts to inactivity nor would I use tv as a "babysitter" or pacifier.

galah

wish our son would sit still long enough to watch tele (for a few minutes so I can get stuff done...) - he's18 months old, and the tele does not interest him at all. Obviously I am not going to force it, but a tiny bit of respite would be nice every now and a again...

Suucee

My 13 month old only recently started watching tv. The only thing she will watch is waybuloo. Loves it. Even got her 1 of d teddies and loves that too. I dont think tv is 2 bad once there not watching it all the time . Its an absolute god send when trying to cook dinner. Cleaning etc not to bad because i give her the dust pan and shes happy out but once she knows dinner is on the way nothing will keep her quiet (except waybuloo) ive tried giving her pots and pans etc but she knows dinners coming and wants it NOW. Its best to keep her away from the kitchen until its made.

liliq

galah wrote: »

wish our son would sit still long enough to watch tele (for a few minutes so I can get stuff done...) - he's18 months old, and the tele does not interest him at all. Obviously I am not going to force it, but a tiny bit of respite would be nice every now and a again...

Same here!
My 21 month old just doesn't stay in one place for long enough so the tv is wasted on him. Usually on a Sunday morning he'll watch half an hour of top gear with his dad while I get an extra hour of sleep, and once in a blue moon ill put on a DVD in the evening if he's tired enough to chill out on the couch for a bit.
I'm not a tv person really though, id rather have the radio on, where my husband would have the tv on 24/7.

How Strange

Our son has only shown an interest in the last 6 months. He loves the muppets and has one DVD that he's crazy about. He loves anything with singing. He also loves bob the builder and we've a DVD if a live show with lots of songs which he knows by heart.

We do limit the time he spends watching tv but it's a godsend when he wakes up early like this morning as it keeps him quiet for an hour or so

dublinlady

My 16 month old has started watching a little bit now - say 20 mins twice a day - purely so I can breast feed my new born - it provides a great distraction!! She gets ALOT of exercise so it's a good way to get her to sit still & rest fir a few mins too as she's like the energiser bunny!
So for us it's fantastic!
So far she's only really watched in the night garden. What are good educational programmes I could record for her?
Anyway my view is - needs must! Also a little of these things won't do harm - it's when they are over used and the child gets lazy and won't interact there's. problem!

Xdancer

My 18 month old loves Baby Jake, and every morning she loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in Spanish. Her pediatrician actually recommended that we let her watch a bit of TV every day so she hears Spanish in the house (I speak English to her, and my OH speaks French).

How Strange

I find most things on cbeebies are good and there's no ad breaks. I don't turn on nickjr as I find it very commercial and they seem to have as breaks every 5 mins. Somehow he knows who peppa pig is though!

He definitely watched a lot more in the last few weeks of my pregnancy and first weeks of looking after thr baby. We really try to go out on a Saturday morning and the afternoons at the weekend now that it's summer.

Mink

galah wrote: »

wish our son would sit still long enough to watch tele (for a few minutes so I can get stuff done...) - he's18 months old, and the tele does not interest him at all. Obviously I am not going to force it, but a tiny bit of respite would be nice every now and a again...

Same here, he's 10.5mths and never shown any interest in the TV. I have the radio on during the day (more for my sanity). There are certain toys he loves and I know if I sit him down with them I'm guaranteed 10 mins for example, to get the dinner on etc.

I don't mind him not being into TV at all, though it'll be nice to watch kids movies with him when he's older (Toy Story etc).

wallycharlo

I personally think that TV programs for toddlers & young children etc have managed to gain a negative reputation which they do not deserve.

On the contrary I actually have noticed that it can be very beneficial (presuming one doesn't let them watch for hours and hours on end of course).

Morph the Cat

People get unnecessarily snobby about waddlers/toddlers watching TV. "There's no way I let my little Rafferty Taylor-Thomas watch TV.".

B*llocks. They learn from these shows, like they learn from everything they do - they learn sounds, words, songs, animals, names for objects, and good lessons about sharing, etc. My daughter gets to watch 30mins before she goes to bed each night, and shows like Jake, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Curious George, etc, are great; she sings the songs and calls out the various mouseketools, etc. Have yet to see a negative effect. That said; she's not sitting there for hours at a time...

Das Kitty

My guy likes the telly as much as his parents, but we don't have it on all the time. He can either watch a few things on cbeebies, or a couple of episodes of something on Netflix.

That said, I could kill Dora for telling him what an ice-cream van is!

staticdoor71

In my opinion ive found tv surprisingly brilliant for my little girl, shes just gone 14 months, and can count to ten, all because of "Charlie and the numbers" on baby tv..

Again she watches minimal tv, ten mins lying on the floor in the morning when she has her bottle, and maybe another half and hr or 40 mins throughout the day (maybe even less since shes started crawling)

But her speech is great... has no problem asking for what she wants or repeating what she hears.. She loves music and sings along and dances with "the bug band"..

I find baby tv amazing..

She got a peppa pig dvd for her bday from a friend and has no interest in the world.. its something about baby tv..

I think its just a case of everything in moderation.. if you offer her the tv or her "lift the flaps" books, she will still pick her books every time

December2012

Baby tv definitely takes the edge off. So relaxing!

wallycharlo

December2012 wrote: »

Baby tv definitely takes the edge off. So relaxing!

Hippa Hippa Hey is definietly the best. I've actually caught myself watching it for 5 minutes before I realise that my daughter has left the room

Morph the Cat

Sergio Inexpensive Sunburn wrote: »

reports I read recommend no TV until they are 4 ( easier said than done) as they don't relate speech to what they hear on TV and are slower in talking.

And which "reports" are these? The same ones that said watching too much TV will give you square eyes?

Suucee

Whats this baby tv. Never heard of it. Is it available on upc anyone know.

staticdoor71

Suucee wrote: »

Whats this baby tv. Never heard of it. Is it available on upc anyone know.

think its only on sky, its channel 623. Amazing!!!!

Youtube "charlie and the numbers", or "the cuddlies" (thats my daughters fav), or "tulli" or "Hippa Hippa Hey"

Gee_G

staticdoor71 wrote: »

think its only on sky, its channel 623. Amazing!!!!

Youtube "charlie and the numbers", or "the cuddlies" (thats my daughters fav), or "tulli" or "Hippa Hippa Hey"

Have to agree, its amazing!! My little man is not impressed with the recent change to The Jammers though

pwurple

staticdoor71 wrote: »

think its only on sky, its channel 623. Amazing!!!!

Youtube "charlie and the numbers", or "the cuddlies" (thats my daughters fav), or "tulli" or "Hippa Hippa Hey"

You can download some of the babytv apps for android or iphone/ipad. Ours likes the pocoyo ones. Voiced by stephen fry.

scaryfairy

I have just discovered a really sweet series (may have been on baby tv, too, don't know), my 8.5-month old seems to like it: Uki, it's on youtube of course. We are only watching it on a laptop though

staticdoor71

Gee_G wrote: »

Have to agree, its amazing!! My little man is not impressed with the recent change to The Jammers though

I don't blame him, its awful. A bit miffed with it myself!!!!:)

Morph the Cat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzlyQYn-BZE