I'm curious about screen time for a young baby. DD is 10 weeks old and just started noticing the TV 2 weeks ago. Now she is enthralled with it and cranes her head to try and watch it. We make a point of not watching tv a lot during the day-I watch about 30 mins of the Today show in the mornings while feeding her on her boppy so she can't see the tv and then it's off for the day. We have it on at night though to watch the news or a tv show. I'm worrying about her watching tv with us. I'm not worried about the content since she doesn't understand anything yet, just more worried about the actual screen time. We are trying to not have the tv on as much at night and to turn her so she can't see the screen. Do you worry about this if you have a young baby? Was it a non-factor for you? Do you think I'm crazy worrying about this already? 
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I watched tv a ton while on maternity leave with #1. I've been doing the same with #2. I'm not concerned. Just always make sure I'm interacting with LO plenty. I'd go nuts sitting in a silent house all day staring at LO.
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I worried with LO1, but I think LO2 started watching Daniel Tiger at a few weeks old
I understand your concern, but I think it's really a non - issue if you don't have the TV on endlessly.
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Oh man! When DD was that young and nursing all the time I was always watching tv. Vampire Diaries marathons! It is my personal opinion but I really don't think it matters when they are that young unless they're just propped infront of the tv all day.
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In the NB days, I would have the tv on a fair amount, but after about 3 months or so I start limiting how much I have it on during the day.
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One of the founding pediatricians at our dr (so, a ped with like 30+ years of experience) showed me a way to hold 1 month old reflux-y DD and said "so just hold her like this while you guys watch football! Or whatever you like to watch!" I refer to that as unspoken approval to have some tv on. I honestly believe tv only becomes a problem when it is a replacement for the amount of interpersonal interaction that they need per day - definitely not your case!
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We watched a TON of TV during the newborn days. As others have said, I think it's only an issue when you start using it as a replacement for interaction.
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I have a 7.5-month-old and TV is basically my background noise during the day. It is on all the time. I am not at all concerned about the fact that she occasionally looks up at it and watches.
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LO has never been allowed to watch tv (with the exception of the few days we were all sick, and thanksgiving at other people's houses), and she started trying probably around the same time as yours. I feel strongly about it. She's 6mo now and has a play area where she can't see it, but I mostly keep it off. DH sometimes has it on when he's holding her but he puts a pillow up to block her from being able to see it. That pisses her office she realizes it's on.
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Somewhere around 3 months, I started noticing LO stare at the TV. It creeped us out how she seemed to zone out, so we cut out TV for when she was awake.
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My guy is 10 weeks old and we try not to let him watch tv. He is honestly more interested in the ceiling fan anyway haha
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We didn't worry about it. We get out of the house, do things, and they are plenty active and more interested in toys and playing than the tv. The iPad is the real issue that they would be zombies on all day if I let them.
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A that age I had it on a lot and just would turn it down or distract DD from it!
I also made it a point to turn it off it it went being exclusively watched!
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DD started noticing TV about that age. Now she's older (5.5 months) and could care less about it. Maybe it is what we watch (the news and Jeopardy)? But she would much rather play her toys, roll around on the ground, or play with our faces. Actually, now that I think about it, when she started rolling both ways was about when she lost interest.
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At that age I wasn't worried at all. It's such a blur but I'd say the earliest I was actually worried was maybe 6 months? He seemed too oblivious and uninterested until then.
But I'm also not a total stickler for screen time! He's 16 months now and on a good day gets only 30 mins of TV. A bad day maybe 2 hours spread throughout the day (if I don't feel good, it's extremely cold out and I'm running out of ideas, etc). Just sharing this to put my opinion into perspective
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I made a pledge to myself to never have the TV on during the day. I found other things to do, like using the tablet or reading etc. I just felt I was gonna go stupid from watching daytime TV (no idea about American daytime TV but the German one is BAD!). So it really only was issue until they moved their bedtime up so until 6-8w. Before that we just turned them so they couldn't see the TV.
Even now at 1y old and 2y9m old we keep the TV off until the kids are both in bed. -
We pretty much stopped watching TV when our lo started noticing it because we didn't want her to get any screentime.
I think it's good we did that because it put us into habit for now when she wants TV all the time and we have to limit what she watches. If we watch anything for ourselves with her around, it is NFL. Otherwise, it is off unless it is a children's show.
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I have two concerns about screen time: one, time spent watching a screen is time spent sitting on your butt. Well, mine is a baby, so she's either asleep in arms, trying to crawl on the floor, or in her bouncer. Two, time spent watching tv is time not spent learning to invent your own games (the executive function issue), and again, she's a baby, so her own games at this point are hooting at her toys and examining her toes. She does that even if the tv is on, so I'm not worried.
At that age it is literally just a big, bright moving picture, so I could honestly care less. She is around for the hour or two of screen time that her sister gets, and then if I watch something in the evening. I won't worry about it until she's old enough to sit down and watch it and stop doing other things.
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I have a 5 week old and the tv is on a fair amount of time. I like the background noise. She will look at the screen on occasion, I'm not too worried at this stage, we make sure to give her lots of face to face time when she is alert, but I like to watch tv when I'm breastfeeding.
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Er. I think my baby knew Jimmy Fallon by name
I understand your concern, but I think it's really a non - issue if you don't have the TV on endlessly.
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