Oh, the guilt!

Ever since Jakob's Nanny gave him a Baby Einstein DVD (well, since I started letting him watch it, really), I've had guilt¹. I shouldn't be using the TV as a babysitter, that I know, but what if my deep-seated fear that Baby Einstein DVDs are actually a mind control experiment turns out to not be overly paranoid? He doesn't watch it often (and less frequently all the time - I think it has been 2 weeks at least since he last saw one), but each time he does, I feel like I lose a few points on the 'good mother' scale.

And now this:

Most parents let babies watch TV, despite advice
Last Updated: Monday, May 7, 2007 | 7:14 PM ET
CBC News

By the time children are two years old, 90 per cent of them regularly spend time watching TV, DVDs and videos, U.S. researchers have found.

The American Pediatric Society recommends children under two should not watch any TV, and previous studies suggest less viewing time may be important in developing vocabulary. The Canadian Pediatric Society also warns that too much TV is linked to problems with attention, learning and aggressive behaviour.

"For the kids under the age of three, the biggest thing is that they should be interacting verbally," said Dr. Sarah Shea, head of the child development clinic at the IWK Children's Health Centre in Halifax, commenting on the study.

"When the TV is on, people don't talk to each other in a meaningful way. They don't look at each other when they do talk, except to say things like, 'Be quiet.'"

At 29 per cent, the top reason parents gave for putting their babies in front of TVs was they believed the programs they chose were good for the child's brain.

The second most cited reason, at 23 per cent, was that parents believed their baby enjoyed watching or it was relaxing for them. Another 21 per cent of parents said it gave them time to get things done while the child was entertained.

For the study in the May issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Frederick Zimmerman of the University of Washington in Seattle and his colleagues surveyed 1,009 parents of children aged two to 24 months by telephone. They were mostly well-educated, upper-income families.

{snip}

And this:

Oh baby! A playroom with a big screen: Nearly half of three-month-olds watch TV, study says
TRALEE PEARCE
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
May 7, 2007 at 11:30 PM EDT

Three-month-old babies are too little for solid food. They can't sit up by themselves and many can't sleep through the night. But 40 per cent of them are already watching television, according to a study published today.

The University of Washington study, which appears in the May edition of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, is the first to identify how early in infancy babies are becoming TV viewers.

The researchers also found that by the time they're two, a whopping 90 per cent of the soother set are tuning in.

The huge number of baby viewers reflects the fact that parents are buying into TV as education, says pediatrics professor Frederick Zimmerman, one of the study's authors. But despite what parents believe, “there's no evidence that [viewing] has any educational benefit,” says Dr. Zimmerman, who is also the co-author of a book on children's TV habits.

Young babies now have more viewing options than ever.

{snip}

Canadian babies will soon have more television choices — and at all hours of day and night. A U.S. company plans to launch a 24-hour cable channel for babies, BabyFirstTV, in Canada by the end of June. Britain's BabyTV channel, now available as a specialty pay channel in Toronto for some cable subscribers, has won approval from federal regulators for broader Canadian distribution.

{snip}

“The process of wiring up the brain happens in response to this kind of interaction. That's what learning is all about at this age. The synapses between the brain cells are developing rapidly,” says Dr. Zimmerman, who surveyed 1,000 Washington State and Minnesota families for the study.

“TV is something you can't experiment on because it never responds.”

Since most parents are unlikely to turn off the TV, Dr. Zimmerman and his colleagues suggest a possible mitigating influence: encouraging parents to watch with their babies.

{snip}

And, in moderation, TV for babies isn't the end of the world, Dr. Zimmerman says.

“If it's a half an hour and it gives the mother or father a bit of a break, okay, fine,” he says. “A half an hour is not going to kill anyone.”

Oh, crap.



¹ The guilt didn't keep me from buying other Baby Einstein DVDs, though.