Babies get their own channel. We read with interest a recent article in The Washington Post describing the newest television programming dedicated to babies.
The first to market here in the United States is BabyFirstTV,
a 24-hour cable channel, based in Los Angeles. The premium channel is available on the Dish Network and DirecTV and will soon be launching on 10 cable television systems, according to the Post article.
Not to be outdone, British-based BabyTV plans to enter the United States this fall. BabyTV first entered the Israel market and it sold as well as the Playboy channel, according to the article.
Both channels target their programming to babies under 3-years old. This despite an 8-year-old recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics of no screen time for children younger than 2, according to the Post. You can read the entire article here.
We've never seen this type of programming ourselves, but let us know if you have.
(photo: waveoverwave)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
We have a 15 month old and some of our friends with babies have the baby channel. Most of the parents use it to give them some time to clean or read for a few minutes.
I'm not comfortable putting my baby in front of a tv. There are other distractions we can use to get things done.
I don't have children, but would never put my baby or toodler in front of the tv. Here in Europe, there are many discussions on how tv, viseo games etc. influence children nowadays. Children become overweight due to not being physically active, some become violent because of ty programms ( look carfully: even Tom and Jerry is quite violent !) and become stupid because they aren't stimulated in their own creativity and curiosity.
So why the hell put babies in front of the tv ?!! To have some time "off"? In this case, either find another way, more stimulating or don't get kids.
My husband and I put our tv in a closet long before we had kids. There's no good reason for us to pull it out now as our 18 month old son loves listening to music and is very good at amusing himself.
Our family's Adbusters.org-inspired media philosophy runs pretty deep, but is atypical in this part of the country.
I can however see advantages in having 24 hours of age appropriate content for households that already incorporate infant television viewing.
i will try to avoid putting my child in front of TV, but I know that sometimes people need a break and the tv can be a convenient way to get the very occasional respite. however, i would be very suspicious of this channel and the types of explicit or embedded marketing within. if i need to resort to TV, i'll stick to DVDs of more harmless fare.
TV is such a tough thing, we hadn't shown our daughter a lot of TV before, but then a couple of months ago, she was very sick with the flu and we were up all night long with her. I mean sick, really sick, the kind where you're changing your clothes every 45 min because she's been sick again, kind of sick. She couldn't handle us reading to her or singing to her. Sitting quietly made her even more restless, so we ended up reluctantly just turning on the TV to get her mind off her upset stomach. It calmed her down, but she's totally hooked now. We just try to distract her with other things and that seems to be doing the trick, but I post only to ask the other readers do not judge too harshly, you don't know until you've been there, and it's easy to say "I'll never do that" if you've never been there. Every parent makes decisions based on what they feel is best and each kid is different. I'm not saying that a 24hr baby channel is a good idea, I don't particularly like it. But that's a company trying to take advantage of a void they feel is there in attempt to make a quick buck. So complain about that rather then saying the parent is a bad parent because they've stuck their kid in front of the TV. You just don't know until you've been there.
I've heard recently that letting your child watch tv before the age of two will hurt their eyes/eye development. Is this true??
Also, I've watched BabyTV when it was a free preview on our satellite. It was cute. A lot of music with arts or beautiful visuals. I liked it and thought it was a good idea...but not to have on constantly.
Abbey, While there are numerous theories about physiological effects, the most definitive and persuasive arguments I've heard have been related to the tv haze, the relaxed feeling an adult may get when he or she kicks back in front of the tv which is the opposite of the stimulation a growing brain needs.
My husband and I both had tremendous affection for tv watching, but began realizing we were losing night after night to it and eased up before I became pregnant, so the transition to no tv while our daughter was awake wasn't as hard as it would have been back when we spent three snowed in days watching a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon. We've been blown away by how much longer the days seem (in a good way) and by how good the lack of noise seems to be for all of us. Plus, in a smallish apartment, one person watching the tv easily overlaps into the activities of those who aren't.
I think Sarah makes a great point. Parents have different situations; they make different choices. I'm just aghast at the cynicism of companies who, despite the clarity of the AAP's recommendations, saw a chance to tap a ready market and dove in. Whenever confronted by evidence, the marketing officials I've heard are sadly quick to talk about how no tv for infants and toddlers just isn't possible, and they are just trying to provide good quality programming. Ulg. Money money money.
I am not sure how this babyTV is different from say Nickelodeon, Noggin, Disney Channel, or having 20 Dora the Explorer's tivo-ed. As many have said, the key thing is that TV works for some parents in certain situations. My kid could never paid much attention to TV until he turned 2. Contrary to popualr beleif, TV is a hard thing for most babies to get into. It requries them to be physically still yet mentally stimulated. For my energizer bunny that was a tough one. It still is and when he watches he is usually jumping on the couch, runnning around etc. But he does request a daily dose of Thomas the Tank Engine. Fortunately he has always been into music so I can also put on the soundtrack to the Lion King or some other album and he listens and plays while I shower, cook whatever.
Some argue that childrens' programming(Sesame Street for example)teaches their kids a lot of things. Others think that it is a time waster. Do what you have to do. Obviously parking your baby in front of the TV for hours on end is not the best strategy but TV is not the root of all evil either. As parents we are still in control. Everything in moderation and until you have a child at TV viewing age, despite all your intentions, you really don't know what will happen.
we saw BabyTV once at a friends house during a playdate. it was not very educational. even my kid was not interested.
i don't think all TV is bad for kids and babies. we tivo a program called Signing Time that plays on PBS. there are several episodes, each is 30 minutes long. my kid has been watching it 3 or 4 times a week since she was 11 months old, and now at 16 months, she has used more than 70 signs correctly, even though she can only speak a few words.
this really says something about how much kids actually pick up from watching tv.
i do watch the program with her sometimes, but as a stay-at-home mom, i often use this 30 minutes to shower, check my email, and clean up around the house. my daughter loves watching it, and i don't feel guilty about it for a second.
everything in moderation, right?