Posted on 05/08/2007 7:47:54 AM PDT by Sopater
Baby wants a bottle, and her TV.
Babies are glued to television sets these days, with 40 percent of 3-month- olds and 90 percent of 2-year-olds regularly watching TV, according to a University of Washington study released Monday.
These tiny viewers are further proof that baby TV is a booming business in 2007. Today, infants have their own 24-hour network, Brainy Baby and Baby Einstein DVDs, and a growing list of other programs made just for them. Many also have sets in their bedrooms.
"Most of these kids are watching what parents consider to be quote, unquote 'educational TV,' " said Dr. Dimitri Christakis, co-author of the study and associate professor at the UW. "There is not evidence at all that it is."
Scientists have themselves partly to blame, Christakis added, because they convinced parents that the first years are critical for a baby's brain, which triples in size by age 2. In fact, the most common reason parents offered researchers for their child's time before the tube was that they believed it was educational.
Researchers don't yet have a crystal clear picture of how bad, or good, television is for infants, though UW researchers say evidence suggests it's harmful.
With so much tube time, Christakis is also concerned babies lose precious time to play with blocks, read books with Mom and Dad and engage in other developmental play.
They don't have that much time to lose. Babies typically sleep 12 hours a day, which means many lose 10 to 20 percent of their waking hours to a glowing screen, Christakis said.
"We are kind of in the middle of a large, uncontrolled experiment on the next generation of children," Christakis said.
The experiment, however, deals with an evolving medium, BabyFirstTV countered. The year-old network may be on 24 hours a day, but its shows run only seven or eight minutes and without commercials. The shows are positive and are designed for babies and toddlers, and they engage parents, co--founder Sharon Rechter said.
"Let's make it a tool. Let's transform the viewing from a passive to an active experience," Rechter said Monday. "There is not a question of should they or shouldn't they (watch television). The fact ... is they are."
University of Washington researchers, however, found only 32 percent of parents always watched television with their children 2 and younger. BabyFirstTV's Rechter countered that 82 percent of her network's viewers watch with their babies.
Sometimes Mom and Dad don't even agree.
Ruby Grynberg is OK with her sons watching 30 minutes a day of "Blues Clues" or "Dora the Explorer," especially if the shows are free of commercials. Her husband, who is the primary caregiver, may turn on the tube for an hour.
"For me one of the biggest issues is commercials," Grynberg, 28, said.
When her sons -- ages 5, 3 and 2 months -- watch more than one show, they are crankier and more prone to meltdown when the screen goes dark, she added.
Advocates and critics agree on one thing: More research is needed on television's effect on young brains. Every month seems to bring another report on the effect of the boob tube on America's youth.
Last year, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that a third of children under 6 live in homes where TV is on most of the time, and 33 percent of those children have televisions in their bedrooms.
The most popular reason parents cited for letting junior put a set in his room was so everyone else could watch his or her own program, Kaiser said.
Last May, Atlanta-based Brainy Baby Co. cited a University of Texas study that reported a link between improved reading skills and a "steady diet of educational programming."
The company, which makes one of the more popular baby video series, stressed the importance of balancing appropriate educational tools with reading, physical activity and parenting.
University of Washington researchers disagree, saying the best available research indicates that all this television offers no benefits to babies and toddlers.
"While appropriate television viewing at the right age can be helpful for both children and parents, excessive viewing before age 3 has been shown to be associated with problems of attention control, aggressive behavior and poor cognitive development," Frederick Zimmerman, the UW study's lead author, said in a news release.
The UW study based its findings on a telephone survey in Minnesota and Washington of 1,000 parents of children 2 years old or younger.
In the meantime, the Federal Trade Commission is considering a complaint lodged against BabyFirstTV, Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby. It alleges false advertising -- that parents were misled that the videos benefit their children.
What about "Sesame Street"?
UW's Christakis argues that while the long-running PBS show, and similar programs, can help older children, these shows are not designed for babies.
But Christakis isn't telling parents to get rid of their televisions sets.
Parenting has never been harder, Christakis suggests, with more two-career families, longer commutes and fewer walls between the office and home.
If you need a 15-minute break, or a quick shower, don't feel too bad about turning on the set for a short time.
"If you are doing it, however, because (you) think it's good for your baby, then I tell parents they shouldn't do it," said Christakis, who is also a pediatrics researcher at Seattle Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center.
Janda Black doesn't put much stock in the benefits of baby programs for her son, Chase, who might get two short Little Einstein shows a week.
The programs aren't much help to Black either, as she juggles a public relations business, a husband in the active military and a 1-year-old.
"It really doesn't buy me that much time."
ADVICE ON KIDS AND TV
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television for children younger than 2, and only one to two hours a day of quality programming for older children.
The academy also suggests that parents not allow TV sets in children's rooms. It released a separate report Monday indicating one-fifth of the nation's children age 2 or younger have a TV in their rooms.
We’re pretty good about not having the tv on when our 12 month old is in the room. Although Mr. elc does like to cuddle up with her every now and then and watch the Simpsons.
But we do purposely put on her Baby Signing Times dvd. It has been amazing. We’ve been working on signs with her ourself, but she’s learning the ones from the dvd much faster. Probably because we don’t sing cute little songs when we sign with her.
Perhaps its a little strong to say that the companies “foist” this material on parents. We’re all free to choose. The parents can choose to either watch or not, either buy or not. If they don’t consider themselves to be free and believe that this material is being ‘foisted’ on them, then they deserve our sympathy or perhaps even pity.
Sorry, but in that study, they didn’t even study children who watched tv versus those that didn’t. They looked at the autism rates in 2 states - California and Pennslyvania I believe - and compared that to cable subscription rates and precipitation rates in those states.
To me, that just does not demonstrate a causal relationship. There could be any other number of variables coming into play.
Once we got to 10th grade, we used the dual credit system since we're very close to a couple state U's. But for the high school diploma, we had to jump through hoops. I actually thought we'd have to resort to the GED (since he had earned enough credits for an AA during HS, but couldn't get an AA without a high school diploma...it was like a catch-22.)
It finally turned out to be easier than they had led us to believe. We just had to sign an affadavit, get a letter from the Homeschool Office of our public school system saying we were enrolled as homeschoolers, and then present a transcript. Since most of the classes were taken at the college, the transcript was easy.
But on his college transcripts it says "HS diploma, homeschool"...on yours they'll be an actual school that awarded the HS diploma and I think that can be helpful.
I do agree a lot more study is needed.
But I would add that I live very near a large Amish community. They don’t have TV. I know lots of them. I have never heard of an Amish kid with autism. I am sure there are some but not nearly at the rate as the general population.
Up until a certian age our sensory signals are still developing. Overstimulation could very well cause damage.
And I’ve heard people make the same argument about the Amish and vaccines.
The Amish are a very homogeneous group (genetically). That plays into the autism factor much more than television or vaccines.
That said, I do agree that sensory skills and brain development under the age of three is crucial. It is why we do try very hard to limit television for our daughter and we choose to delay many of her vaccines. Not because we think they cause autism, but because they can interfere with brain development.
Is that Tom Terrific?
“My son is fifteen months old, and he’s never watched television. My wife and I read to him, play games with him, and take him outside”
I did that with my children and I always got compliments on how well they played. They didn’t complain about not having anything to do or being bored. They had the imagination to make everything into something fun. They are teenagers now and sometimes drive me nuts with their antics. ;-)
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Yep, and Manfred the Wonder Dog.
And Clyde Crashcup and his assistant Leonardo (much better than the Chipmunks that the Crashcup cartoons feel in bewteen).
I disagree. My 3 year old is past the Baby Einstein stage but he really enjoyed them when he was younger. I don't think it is harmful to expose your kid to a few little puppet shows and some classical music. It's not like he didn't touch, feel interact and explore also.
My son is not a couch potato. He has all the wild energy of a 100% boy. If we had forced him to watch Baby Einstein and never interacted with him ourselves, that would be child abuse. But it was just one additional thing he was exposed to that seemed to be mentally stimulating.
From what I've read the founder of Baby Einstein sold the company to Disney then she started working with the creator of America's Most Wanted on a series of videos aimed at keeping teens safe. It was the teen videos that got her honored by Bush, not the baby ones.
In that case, I will gladly stand corrected.
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