There is yet another study indicating children watch too much television. This study conducted by pediatric researchers at the University of Washington focuses on television watching habits of children under the age of two years. Keeping in mind the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly urges against children under the age of two watching television, some of the disturbing findings include:

• About 40 percent of 3-month-olds watch an average of 45 minutes of television a day
• 90 percent of children are watching television for an average of more than 90 minutes a day by age 2
• Despite evidence and warnings to the contrary, parents believe television geared toward babies is good for brain development.

Why shouldn't children under age 2 watch television? From the article I linked to above:

What parents identify as attention and learning scientists say is a primitive reflex known as the orienting response. "Yes, the baby is staring at the screen, but it’s wrong to think the child likes it," said Christakas, the study’s co-author and himself the father of two young children. "He or she has no choice in the matter. He’s hard-wired to pay attention to anything that is fast-moving, brightly colored, or loud. It’s a survival response." Christakas said he embarked on the study after being perplexed by the results of a 2003 Kaiser Foundation study that found that children under age 6 were spending up to two hours a day in front of a screen, despite the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that children under 2 watch no television at all. Early screen-viewing has a negative effect on soft-wiring even when the content is baby-safe, he said. "The question to ask isn’t, ‘What is she watching,’ but, ‘What else isn’t she doing?'" he said. "When there’s screen time at an early age, the brain is wired to respond to screens even before they crawl or say their first words. At a time when they need to be interacting with the environment and with real human beings, they are being conditioned to respond to a screen." What’s more, he said, babies who are in front of a screen as early as 3 months are at higher risk for childhood obesity. "Wiring is based on repetition, on patterning. It’s a reasonable hypothesis that if a baby is in front of a screen at 3 months, it will be harder to get him away from the screen at 3, 8, 10, or 13," he says. "We’re conditioning them to be couch potatoes."

Not that we needed it, but this study only reinforces our decision to keep Baby E away from the television for a while. We noticed very early on that whenever he was in the room with the television, he fixated on it and would strain his neck to get a glimpse of the screen. It really bothered us, so we rarely have the television on anymore when he is around.

Comments

[Adwina - Mom of 1]

It's a very good decision you make.

BTW, I linked your post at my blog. Hope you're ok with that.

[No problem. Thanks for the link. -ed.]