Limiting exposure
Studies differ on whether some media help development

By Brandy McDonnell
Published: October 9, 2006

Perusing the baby section at local stores, parents are as likely to find DVDs and compact discs as they are diapers and formula.

The past decade has brought a boom in infant media, with hundreds of books, videos, CDs and computer games designed for babies. Sold under brands such as "Baby Einstein" and "Brainy Baby," many are marketed as "edutainment" and promise to entertain and educate infants.

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Their popularity is indisputable. From 2001-05, Baby Einstein's retail sales grew from $25 million to $200 million.

But the wisdom of putting babies in front of televisions is in dispute.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children younger than 2, said Dr. Benard Dreyer of the group's communication committee. The group's policy is no more than two hours of TV a day for children ages 2-5, since research shows that educational programs can benefit this age group.

The concern is that TV is a waste of infants' time that could displace proven learning activities such as playing with toys or in the park.

"In the first two years of life ... we know that children don't learn without interactions with people. There's a lot of science that shows that children will not learn information or skills from TV or DVDs at that age," said Dreyer, a pediatrician, professor and vice chairman of New York University School of Medicine. "It's baby-sitting. It's not helping their development in any way, but the sad thing is that parents think it is."

On average, babies 6 months to 3 years old spend an hour a day watching TV and 47 minutes a day with other screen media, such as computers, videos and video games, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Since babies are awake only 10-12 hours a day, that's a big chunk of time, said Dr. Dimitri Christakis, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington and Children's Hospital in Seattle.

While many videos promise to stimulate cognitive development or teach certain skills, he said no evidence backs these claims.

"There is no obvious benefit, and there's actually a risk of harm," he said.

Christakis led a 2004 study of 1- and 3-year-olds that found an association between early TV exposure and attention problems at age 7.

He said babies can't understand the content of videos. Infants fixate on them because the scenes change rapidly, sometimes as often as every three to six seconds.

"We are technologizing childhood in a way that's unprecedented. We're really engaging in a nationwide, uncontrolled experiment on the next generation," he said.

If parents occasionally use the videos to take a short break, he said they shouldn't feel terribly guilty. But they shouldn't think they're making their children smarter.

Dr. Marny Dunlap, assistant professor of pediatrics at University of Oklahoma's College of Medicine, suggests parents watch along and interact with their infants during educational DVDs.

"If you're going to have your child watching TV, that's the kind of things you ... want to watch. But for an infant, no TV is better. You're better off reading a book with them or playing a game."

She said companies are making videos for infants "not because kids need it, because there's a market for it."

Brainy Baby President and chief Executive Officer Dennis Fedoruk said he has children's best interests at heart. He created his first videos in 1995 for his sons. At 12 and 14, they are A students without attention problems, he said.

"There's nothing conclusive in their ‘studies' that these videos are detrimental to children," he said. "We've not had a single customer in 12 years say that they've had a detriment or harm to their children."

He said little research has been done on educational TV for children younger than 2. He welcomes such studies.

"We hear testimonies from thousands and thousands of parents that their children do indeed learn these academic skills (from our products) at an early age, before age 2," he said.

He advises parents to use the videos in moderation as learning tools, along with books, music and toys.

Dr. Ed McCabe, physician in chief at Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, is on the advisory board of BabyFirstTV cable channel. He supports moderate TV viewing for infants with parental interaction.

"The decision parents need to make is about the content and not about an entire medium," he said.

Since infants are watching TV, educational content is vital, he said. The purpose isn't to supplant reading and interaction but to complement and encourage them.

"The (American Academy of Pediatrics) policy denies the reality that parents are living in these days," he said. "I don't think we should be condemning good parents for something that there's no solid evidence to create a policy on."

Choctaw parents Chrissy and Frank Cleary use the academy's guideline, but not as a hard-and-fast rule. They have two children and are expecting their third in December.

They let their son, Joshua, 4 1/2 , watch Baby Einstein and Sesame Street before his second birthday, and their daughter, Rebekah, 2�, has been a Dora the Explorer fan for a year. Rebekah sometimes watched TV with her older brother before she turned 2, Chrissy Cleary said.

"It's not necessarily hurtful if it's limited, and you're sitting there with them and interacting with them," she said. "They spend a lot more time reading each day than they do watching TV."


 


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