Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are just 14 months apart and at maybe 3-4 we did a lot of screen time. I'd say 2-3 hours per day and I felt awful about it. My older has special needs, my kids are 15 mod apart, and dealing and his sibling was all encompassing and tiring. Now kids are and 5 and they play from
Sun up to sunset. No mention of screens. I think letting go more and being more free actually helped.

Thank you for this post. I needed it today! This being DCUM, of course some holier-than-thou parent had to respond asap, but what can you do.

OP here - I was just trying to lessen some of our collective guilt! Most of the moms I know IRL did screen time from 2-4 for sibling issues, and most felt guilty. I was convinced I was never going to be able to turn off the TV.

FWIW, my son was premature and has delays. He has ADHD but its not clear if that is kind of like a product of being a preemie or what, exactly. It was diagnosed very early because it is so severe so it is certainly not due to screens. He had a receptive language delay, meaning it was hard for him to understand what people were saying. It was very scary. But he is a strong visual learner, and TV actually helped him learn to understand language - seeing situations and hearing what they were seemed to really resonate with him. He is now in normal range for language at 5. I find that he is much more reactive and it is difficult to transition him away from an IPad - I think because we don't have one and it is tangible.

There are some things we should feel a little guilty about, OP. Screen time before two, junk food, losing our tempers, etc. You have no idea how much better off your child would have been without it. I am not trying to be a bitch here but advocating for screen time is in no child's best interest regardless of the break it gives us.

Anonymous wrote:Studies show that ADHD and screen time are linked, but they do not show causality.

NO here and it would be unethical to ever run a study to prove causality. Imagine telling the mother of identical twins that you need one baby to watch TV while the other doesn't to prove that the baby who does watch TV gets ADD.

Screen time in children under two has been linked to a number of learning and behavioral problems. Do it, don't do it - but don't make up excuses for it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are just 14 months apart and at maybe 3-4 we did a lot of screen time. I'd say 2-3 hours per day and I felt awful about it. My older has special needs, my kids are 15 mod apart, and dealing and his sibling was all encompassing and tiring. Now kids are and 5 and they play from
Sun up to sunset. No mention of screens. I think letting go more and being more free actually helped.

Thank you for this post. I needed it today! This being DCUM, of course some holier-than-thou parent had to respond asap, but what can you do.

OP here - I was just trying to lessen some of our collective guilt! Most of the moms I know IRL did screen time from 2-4 for sibling issues, and most felt guilty. I was convinced I was never going to be able to turn off the TV.

FWIW, my son was premature and has delays. He has ADHD but its not clear if that is kind of like a product of being a preemie or what, exactly. It was diagnosed very early because it is so severe so it is certainly not due to screens. He had a receptive language delay, meaning it was hard for him to understand what people were saying. It was very scary. But he is a strong visual learner, and TV actually helped him learn to understand language - seeing situations and hearing what they were seemed to really resonate with him. He is now in normal range for language at 5. I find that he is much more reactive and it is difficult to transition him away from an IPad - I think because we don't have one and it is tangible.

Similar story! DS got a ton of screentime from 2-4 (and I don't even have the excuse of a baby sib). Now at 4 he watches a movie or two on the weekend and that's it. It's really no big deal.

Anonymous wrote:My kids are just 14 months apart and at maybe 3-4 we did a lot of screen time. I'd say 2-3 hours per day and I felt awful about it. My older has special needs, my kids are 15 mod apart, and dealing and his sibling was all encompassing and tiring. Now kids are and 5 and they play from
Sun up to sunset. No mention of screens. I think letting go more and being more free actually helped.

Thank you for this post. I needed it today! This being DCUM, of course some holier-than-thou parent had to respond asap, but what can you do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The correlation between screen time and ADD is convincing. I am glad it seems to have worked out for you but it is not anything I would ever recommend a parent do to cope with children.

ADHD isn't something you can develop, You are born with it. My husband suffers greatly from this disorder and you can't prevent it. It is just who you are.

Okay, but DH and I both suffer greatly from this disorder, and I absolutely believe we were born with it... and I think the 24/7 TV in my house, etc., etc. greatly exacerbated it. So there's also that.

Anonymous wrote:The correlation between screen time and ADD is convincing. I am glad it seems to have worked out for you but it is not anything I would ever recommend a parent do to cope with children.

ADHD isn't something you can develop, You are born with it. My husband suffers greatly from this disorder and you can't prevent it. It is just who you are.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Studies show that ADHD and screen time are linked, but they do not show causality.

studies show everything and anything. for ex: "When Ice Cream Sales Rise, So Do Homicides" http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/07/09/warm_weather_homicide_rates_when_ice_cream_sales_rise_homicides_rise_coincidence.html

"correlation is not causation, and that ice cream’s relationship to homicide is a mere statistical coincidence"

True, but also an extreme example of this phenomenon (correlation with nearly no chance of causation). It's also true that there are such things as epigenetic triggers for certain disorders. So a kid not (genetically) remotely prone to ADHD may see little or no effect of screen time, but screen time could have an effect, even a tipping point effect, on a kid with that genetic propensity. And there are only so many ways to conduct such studies that could almost by definition not be double-blind-- and it's absolutely true that ADHD kids are inherently are drawn to high-stimulation activities-- so we'll probably never know how much is chicken and egg.

FWIW, DH and I both have formal ADHD diagnoses, and our preschooler gets essentially no screen time-- but it's much less because we think it will trigger any possible ADHD and much more because managing screen time is/would be so hard for US, as parents. Plus, we don't think DC is missing out on anything, at least on balance, and for now.

Anonymous wrote:Studies show that ADHD and screen time are linked, but they do not show causality.

studies show everything and anything. for ex: "When Ice Cream Sales Rise, So Do Homicides" http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/07/09/warm_weather_homicide_rates_when_ice_cream_sales_rise_homicides_rise_coincidence.html

"correlation is not causation, and that ice cream’s relationship to homicide is a mere statistical coincidence"

Studies show that ADHD and screen time are linked, but they do not show causality.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The correlation between screen time and ADD is convincing. I am glad it seems to have worked out for you but it is not anything I would ever recommend a parent do to cope with children.

Uh, okay? Yes do cite that research. Also have you actually looked at the new screen guidelines? The research re screens being negative deals with obesity. And ADHD is neurological. Like autism. The biggest study on ADHD ever done, which is in the lancet this month, confirms that. You don't "catch" ADHD from screens. The research on that point does not exist and is not convincing. Sorry.

Yep. Research is convincing that you can't catch ADHD from staring at screens. Now, if you said that kids with ADHD, because of the way their brains are developing can become "addicted" or more specifically, have a more difficult time "turning it off" due to the way certain games etc. hit dopamine receptors, etc. etc. you might have had a more receptive audience, and that might be a good reason to limit screen use depending on the type of programming that the children are seeing. But it's definitely more nuanced than screentime bad.

Anonymous wrote:The correlation between screen time and ADD is convincing. I am glad it seems to have worked out for you but it is not anything I would ever recommend a parent do to cope with children.

Uh, okay? Yes do cite that research. Also have you actually looked at the new screen guidelines? The research re screens being negative deals with obesity. And ADHD is neurological. Like autism. The biggest study on ADHD ever done, which is in the lancet this month, confirms that. You don't "catch" ADHD from screens. The research on that point does not exist and is not convincing. Sorry.

Anonymous wrote:The correlation between screen time and ADD is convincing. I am glad it seems to have worked out for you but it is not anything I would ever recommend a parent do to cope with children.

Please share your research with us. I have never heard this.

The correlation between screen time and ADD is convincing. I am glad it seems to have worked out for you but it is not anything I would ever recommend a parent do to cope with children.

My kids are just 14 months apart and at maybe 3-4 we did a lot of screen time. I'd say 2-3 hours per day and I felt awful about it. My older has special needs, my kids are 15 mod apart, and dealing and his sibling was all encompassing and tiring. Now kids are and 5 and they play from
Sun up to sunset. No mention of screens. I think letting go more and being more free actually helped.