Hellobee Boards

The "rule" is no tv until after 2, but we let our LO watch a little of Baby First TV. Some of the shows are pretty cute and appropriate. Some are a little lame.

In moderation I'm not against it, my LO is almost 13 months and wants nothing to do with TV. Sometimes I wish she had a show we could sit to have her calm down/unwind too, but she's always on the go constantly. In an infant I think it's the movement that they like, not really the "tv".

H has done this, too, and I wondered the same thing! There's been a few times when he was in his swing and turned his head to "watch" the TV. Glad to hear that pp think it's not really a big deal!

We have a "absolutely no screen time under two" rule that means that if I'm watching a video on my laptop or we're at someone's house that has a TV (we don't have one), I either position her where she can't see it or I turn it off. She doesn't get to see a moving screen, period.

That might be a little more extreme than necessary, but I feel like if we don't set a hard and fast rule than it will just gradually start to become more and more. So we made it a strict "no."

We try to avoid letting her look at the tv, and plan to follow the aap recommendation. I think the concen is about rapidly changing images/ flashing, etc. we have skyped with family, and she often looks at computer screens when my husband holds her while working, but those are just text and she's uninterested.
We watch shows after she goes to bed. On football Sunday, if our team is playing a game while she is awake, we use our during rack and blankets to create a screen! She play on the floor, and we can still watch.
I don't want tv to be a big part of her life growing up, so I try to lead by example.

I try to limit it to evenings and weekends, and only to when we're actually watching something, not just to have it on as background. LO is only almost five months so she's really just checking out the colors and motion. On Sundays we watch football and she catches some of that.

I figure TV, especially sports, is a part of our lives so to artificially keep it from her for some set amount of time doesn't work for our family, and it doesn't hold her attention for too long anyways - she's not sitting through a 4 hour football game!

No screen time under 2 in our house. I want my kids brains to have optimum executive function by the time they start watching. We let our 3 year old watch Sesame Street only on days where she doesn't have school the next day, so at most 3 days a week.

Our younger daughter hasn't watched TV yet.

The evidence base on this subject is growing and limiting TV has many benefits for language, health, obesity, and brain development.

before LO came we watched a lot of TV. during the teeny tiny days i don't think having the TV on mattered too much because he was somewhat oblivious, although i tended to keep it off because i didn't feel like watching.

as LO got older, i noticed that if the TV was on, he would stop whatever he was going and become transfixed. for example, we were trying to feed him and he was just staring at the TV. seeing TV interrupt something that was valuable and fun (whether it be eating, learning how to stand, etc.) has led us to turn off the TV when LO is around.

of course, none of this precludes me using TV in the future as a distraction when i have a crazy active toddler who's all over the place!

@Mrs. Jacks: Do you have any recommended online reading on the subject? DH doesn't understand why I was upset when we went out for an hour and left LO with his family and we came back to see DH's youngest brother showing J youtube videos. Granted, they were "baby-appropriate" but I was really upset that they had been showing him videos without asking if it was OK.

She has been exposed to the TV since my DH has it on during the weekends when he is watching her (5.5 months). She laughs at the sports commentators as if she knows what they are saying. It's really cute but I know babies shouldn't watch TV before 2. My DH sees it as no big deal though since so many of his nieces and nephews watched TV earlier than 2 and they're all very bright. I'm not as stressed out or worried about it like I was at first.