Hi Hetal & friends,

In one of the parenting sessions I attended they said that if a TV is switched on in a room where baby is sleeping or generally we are passing away with baby, it will harm baby's brain development. And some where else I read that we start showing some educational CDs/animal planet/dicovery channel type of channels to baby. they understand that and it will be registered in their brain. This helps baby develop creativity as it improves baby's right brain...

Now I am confused. Can some one throw your views on this? can baby watch TV or not...

Thanks. swarnalatha replied. My son is 2 months old and he always stares at TV...iam afraid if something happens to him after reading your message........did u get any info., on this...please tell... Ritika replied. i am so much confused about this.

my problem is, i stay in north USA and it is very cold here. we don't have much friends or family members staying nearby and due to dis social interaction is not possible like we have in india.it is very chill here, so we don't meet with our friends that often.sometimes weather is so cold, even if we had plans to visit someone in weekends, we cancel it.
so there are very less options available for me.i can't take my 10month old outside in freezing winter.touch wood he never had cold or any problems so far.
so toys,tv and books are the only things that i have,in order to keep him occupied.
he is very active and will not let me do anything. he wants to be picked up in kitchen, will not leave me for bath or even restroom.once he slipped in bathroom because he was trying to stand and walk holding my clothes. i was washing hands so i could not hold him when he fell. touch wood he was not hurt severly.
one of my friend told me to start with books and babyfirst tv. after i started tv,reading books now, he is so much fond of these that atleast he is occupied with it and allows me to go to restroom, take a bath or cook some food.

i have taught my baby so many things from tv with babyeinstein videos and baby firsttv channel. My ped is surprised by his development.
my baby is 10months old and he knows cow, red colour, car,some signs like want food,milk. he doesn't speak much but whenever i say cow, he points at picture of cow and he will say oooo. he babbles so many half words like ooo,aap,aaarrrr.

I think if you sit with your baby when tv is onn and make him learn, he will learn new things and will not become a dumb listener. once all my work is done, i will off the tv and divert his mind to some toys or books.
don't put the tv onn everyday.onn it whenever you think your baby is not letting you do anything or when he is very fussy. all this helps me to calm him also.babyfirst tv is for 24 hours so no problem of timings.

dis is my experience with tv. i feel sometimes bad whenever i read articles that don't let your baby watch tv, it will harm my baby eyes and all bad effects of tv. but i don't know what else to do with him or how to keep him occupied when i am doing my work.

i would appreciate if someone can help me deal with dis.i am in game of it, if there are other alternatives available. Minnu K replied. Hi,

I did some research on this when my baby was 2 months old. The American association of Paeds recommends NO TV for the first two years of life. Afterwards, maybe 1/2 hr to 1 hr of kids programming.
Babies are fascinated by the flashing colors and bright lights on the screen and they will sit entranced in front of it. Don't think that the baby is understanding anything thats happening on TV - whether it be Baby Einstein video or a movie!

Babies need to interact with physical objects, people for adequate brain and social development. I also read that watching TV can cause brain's neural networks to not develop normally. Also, once the child is exposed to TV, he may think that actual events in the world occur in the same fast paced manner as on TV - for e.g a man gets into a car and within seconds he reached his office. This causes lack of concentration in kids especially once they reach school and have to sit in front of the teacher for hours at a time. Seems this is one contributor to ADHD in children.

Basically, research is still going on. But not much good has been proved because of TV watching and there are side effects. So better not let them watch TV until they are old enough to understand that it is just an idiot box :-))