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I was wondering this to.... Does a cell phone count as screen time?

@looch: @mediagirl: I'm pretty certain neither of you ruined your babies!

I *think* screen time is mostly moving images on a screen-- so Ipad, TV, computer...I can't imagine a computer monitor is that entrancing to a baby anyway, or a screen that changes every 3 minutes.

@Foodnerd81: You know, I tend to overthink stuff, so I get worried that I am somehow imparing his developement. But he's a well adjusted 2.5 year old that knows his numbers, shapes, colors and most letters. My 4 year old neice who gets no screen time can only identify the color pink. I try not to let it get the best of me.

Hmm, I only count it while the child is watching the TV. We try not to keep it on in the background at all, but sometimes we fail at that. When DD sits down with the ipad to watch Yo Gabba Gabba, that is definitely screen time. When there's a red sox game on the TV, but she isn't paying any attention to it at all, then I don't really count that, but I try to limit it anyways.

@Mrs. Jacks: no apps or videos, he just grabs it and likes swiping the screen. I think he's attracted to the light.

I wouldn't count Pandora, but apps on a cell phone, TV, computer games, etc. all count to me as screen time. Lorelei gets zero screen time ever at 16 months, but she has listened to a book on tape or the radio for short spurts here and there if the rest of the family was. Ellie is limited, but she is allowed to listen to music or books on tape whenever/as much as she wants. As cautious as I am, having read lots and lots of research, there are so many examples of children having TONS of screen time and not displaying any adverse effects whatsoever. Ellie (who had no screen time at all until age four) is much more aggressive than most of her peers, including many who watch more violent cartoons, etc. than she does and in much greater quantities. This was true even when she had no media viewing. It is certainly a complicated issue. Considering the prevalence of screens (our gas station now even plays short snippets while you fuel up-- drives me NUTSO!) it is certainly hard to avoid. We actually choose restaurants often based on not having a TV. Not that we eat out much (<1x/month).

Oh and to answer the question, I do think that just having the TV on in the background is screen time. It's not active, but it does mean that it might catch their attention and before you know it, they are looking at it.

The one thing that I was really adamant about was no phones or computers during feedings.

@grizz: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/children-and-tv/MY00522

We don't do NO screen time but C watches very little. Like less than a half hour a day, if that. Even when it's on, she's not super interested in it.

@grizz: I did a blog post on screen time that references several sources if I recall.

LO (14 months) only gets to watch 5 mins of pingu or mr roger's neighbourhood once a week when he gets his fingernails cut (hahah), BUT we spend around 30+mins a day talking on skype with my mom who lives across the country! she interacts with him and he 'talks' back, so i guess that is kind of like screen time, too

i'm not worried though, and would allow LO to watch a bit more tv than he does, except our TV is so ancient right now that it's a pain to watch it/turn it on

We listen to music often but I guess I never thought of the way we listen to music as screen time, but I just learned from this thread that it is. Our cable provider has music stations and LO really likes the Swing music station so we listen to that almost every day. With each song they put up pictures of the artist and some facts about that person (and have the occasional advertisement photo on the screen). Hmmm, I may have to rethink this, we'll see.

Our daughter is obsessed with music. She does get some screen time and I don't think we're ruining her. She loves to read and play and has a very high vocab. for her age so we're not worrying about this too much.

IDK, I think the issue with this is highly exaggerated. The concern is that it might affect your child's attention span or activity level. I feel like as long as they're not spending all day watching tv and immersed in the show, it's not really going to do anything.

@Mrs. Jacks: I'm interested to learn more about the issue, because from the reading I have done it was hard to believe that small amounts of screen time have such a huge effect. At what point does the evidence show a consistent problem - 2 hours a day? 5 minutes a day? Every day use? Once a week?

Of course if your infant/toddler is watching hours of tv every single day, I can see how that would have an effect.

I always wonder if skyping with grandparents counts. That's LO's main source of screen time but I don't dare cut it out. My ILs might visit more often.

@BKCaribBaby: Ugh, I'll pull up something else. It's a good source too.