Another TV questions... what is the harm for infants (under 6 months) to watch it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it really bad to nurse while you watch tv? My one month old doesn't see or watch the screen but she can hear the sounds. I still talk to her while I do it.

OT but personally im abou tmoderation.... so when nursing yep sometimes the tv is on

[Anonymous]

My husband e-mailed me an article from slate.com; very credible medical researchers at Cornell are the first to link too much TV in the under 3 set with autism. I will try to find the article and post. As I recall, it has to do with the fact that young children's brains need to see things in 3D and it really affects them with TV, which is "2D." They link the explosion in autism since the 1980s to the advent of cable TV at the same time, when young children started watching a lot more cartoons, etc.

[Anonymous]

PP, I saw the same article, the study was released early summer 2007 I believe. If you read it. it's a bit of a stretch (also links increases in autism to increase in cable TV) but it was enough to get me to turn it off when my baby was around!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband e-mailed me an article from slate.com; very credible medical researchers at Cornell are the first to link too much TV in the under 3 set with autism. I will try to find the article and post. As I recall, it has to do with the fact that young children's brains need to see things in 3D and it really affects them with TV, which is "2D." They link the explosion in autism since the 1980s to the advent of cable TV at the same time, when young children started watching a lot more cartoons, etc.

Before everyone freaks out about this, the study did NOT correlate autism with TV watching AT ALL!!!!

The study correlated the rise in autism since 1980 with the increased number of households with cable TV.

By that logic, we could also say that the internet, Starbucks and reality television shows cause autism, since the penetration/presence/frequency of all have increased dramatically since the 1980s along with autism rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it really bad to nurse while you watch tv? My one month old doesn't see or watch the screen but she can hear the sounds. I still talk to her while I do it.

The advice I got was to turn off the TV once my baby started to be distracted by it. I found that happened around 4 months -- she was pulling off me and trying to turn her head to look at the TV. So now I turn it off and either talk to her or just relax/meditate. Of course, it helps that she's a MUCH more efficient eater now than in the beginning. I don't feel like I need the TV to pass the time any more.

[Anonymous]

Not to pile on, 8:19, but that study referenced in Slate wasn't credible at all, nor did it make the connections you state. 9:43 gives a good summary, and it's also worth noting that the "study" was a retrospective data review by *economists*, not clinicians or childhood behavioral experts, and it wasn't peer-reviewed. It really got a ridiculous amount of attention and was quite easily debunked.

Also, PP worried about TV while nursing, please don't. It's fine. It's even fine if your infant checks it out now and then (although if it's making nursing harder, of course, turn it off).

[Anonymous]

What are you, PP, a producer at channel 4??!!

[Anonymous]

My DD took 60 minutes to nurse until she was 5 or 6 months old. If I hadn't watched TV (or, later, flipped open my laptop), I would have lost my @#$@#%$%@$ mind. I say, do what you have to do to maintain your sanity.

That said, it's easy to keep an infant from watching TV when they're in the immobile stage! Just put something between them and the TV! Voila. It can be creepy to see them zone out as the lights flicker in their eyes. It just seems unnatural for a wee impressionable thing.

I say this as a mom of a 2 year old who almost NEVER sees TV. But as a mom of an infant, TV kept me sane some days. Whatever works.