Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

blasto — Sun, 27 May 2007 05:46:44 GMT

All that, and plus the fact kids sit close to a source of x-rays (CRT televisions) tells me they should not be exposed. Get an LCD!

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

Kimberley_203 — Mon, 14 May 2007 20:10:04 GMT

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

MercolaFan — Mon, 14 May 2007 15:20:25 GMT

I feel responsible, in part, for my son's recent diagnosis of autism. I let him watch at least four hours of movies a day before he was two years old. If scientists prove that the environmental trigger for autism is watching TV before the age of three, I will be in serious trouble with my Maker.

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

SummerSolstice — Mon, 14 May 2007 03:26:18 GMT

My daughter will be 2 next month and we keep her away from the t.v. Instead we spend our time together reading, cooking, gardening, day trips etc. She speaks very well for her age which I attribute to reading the books she loves so much. We also started listening to books on tape while riding in the car. This will give her the opportunity to use her imagination, just like in the days before therre was any t.v. when kids listened to radio programs. As she gets older, the discovery channel, food network etc. can have their place on a limited basis. There is so little time in the day as it is. Why waste it in front of the T.V.

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

Nnifer — Mon, 14 May 2007 02:45:40 GMT

Uh oh! Thus article is a wake up call for me. I've been using the TV just to get the 3 kids to be quiet so I can have some peace. I work full time and my husband is a full time student, and since we don't use daycare, we shift schedules around to make it work, and frankly, the TV gives us a chance to breathe for an hour. This "babysitter" is getting fired, I'm going to have to give serious thought to other ways of occupying my little "angels."

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

breeynicole1579 — Sun, 13 May 2007 20:21:35 GMT

I'm a relativly young mother of 3, being only 22. evn though age has nothing to with how you raise your children, i must say, WHAT HAPPENED TO PLAYING OUTSIDE??? WHat happened to kids riding their bikes and building things outside with sticks and playing in the mud? When I was a kid, i played outside ALL summer long. And i grew up where the average summer temps were well over 115 degrees( in the SHADE). i would go swimming with friends, riding my bike, rollerblading, and of course play in the sprinkers. I never watched TV as a kid. there was too much fun outside! My kids spend the mass majority of their time playing outside in the back yard. on the occasion that they are sick, we do movies and whatnot. but i dont encourage my kids to just sit in front of the TV all day long and zone. When you watch your kids play outside, you get to enjoy the amazing thing called their imagination. its incredible the things my kids come up with. yet that creativity gets hauled to a screeching halt when you just plop in front of the tub and let them watch garbage. The other problem with TV today is...whta happend to luney toons? and disney? wholesome cartoons that didnt teach rudeness and disrespect. no wonder kids are so immpolite anymore....

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

qwazzy — Sat, 12 May 2007 17:58:50 GMT

This is non-sense. My two sons have been watching ALLOT of TV since 6 month old. They watch nothing but mind stimulating shows. My older son loves airplane and watched many educational shows on them. Now he is 2.5 years old and loves dinosaurs and can name more dinosaurs just by looking at their bones then 99% of the adults. He also loves trains and watches many shows on trains. We record many education shows on DVR and fast forward the commercials. I think TV has been an incredible educator in my children's life. I see no sign of any ADD or other stuff. He is a very loving and affectionate boy. When my son was 16 month and just started to talk, we put on an ABC education DVD for him. He named 15 letters at 16 month!!!! Where did he learn this??? my wife and I flipped out. He must have learned if from Other educational shows. He is way above his developed level then most kids.
On the other hand we have friends who have a 2 year old and they stuck to the philosophy of not allowing TV watching and he is still acts like a 6 month old and no talking.
So, point it....this is non-sense, some people just making jobs for them self doing useless research.

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

fortunategirl — Sat, 12 May 2007 12:44:15 GMT

If you have young children throwing your TV out may not be a bad idea. I say this from personal experience. I am a baby boomer and when I was very young there were no restrictions on what could be shown during 'family hour'. My father was in the USAF and had served in the US Army during WWII in the european front. Because of this, we tuned in every week to watch a very popular show back then called, Combat. This was a 'review' of what the war in Europe had been like for the US troops. What my parents didn't know, was that before my 5th birthday, my father was going to be ordered for duty (family in tow) to Germany for a 3 year stint. The other thing they didn't know is that a child's brain has NO ablility to differentiate what they see on TV from the 'real world'. NO ONE TOLD ME THE WAR WAS OVER. I spent the first year we were in Germany in terror thinking the Nazis were going to get me. It caused me physical illness to the point where I had to be taken out of school for the year. It wasn't until I was 15 years old that I was able to tell my Mother what the problem had been. She just laughed and called me a silly kid. Maybe if I'd had other evidence that my parents cared enough that they would never do something that intentionally placed me in harms way, I would not have had this trauma. It is possible that if they'd realized my potential confusion and explained that the war was over it could have been avoided. I do realize that this type of thing is not broadcast during "family hour" but stuff like this and worse is often broadcast durning the "news hour". I think about 911 and all the children that were exposed to days and days of replay of the horrific events and wonder how it has affected them. So if you have young children in your home be very aware of what you and they are veiwing.

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

Dr. Shaw — Sat, 12 May 2007 11:58:03 GMT

What is better---A child raised at home with his/her parents
having one hour/TV day ----or a child raised by daycare attendants
learning their guidance from observing strangers respond to stress in a stressed environment? Hmm, let see the sudies comparing the qualities of children in those two environments.

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

marvinlzinn — Sat, 12 May 2007 03:31:48 GMT

There is a better solution: I never owned a television, and will never allow one into my home - just as I did with my four children I raised. Television programs are full of garbage, the same to a mind as the garbage is in food that makes people sick.

marvin

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

Witch Doctor — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 22:38:25 GMT

Katybr55 - you have a way with words that makes me wanna believe what you say! As it stands, I believe much of what you say an' file the rest in case you're right about that, too..

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

Kelly Young — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 04:13:34 GMT

True, but Mercola says adults shouldn't watch television either. Mercola says he doesn't.

The Internet (chatting, etc.) can be as addictive as television.

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

Kelly Young — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 23:27:01 GMT

Watching a video on the Internet is the same thing as watching a video on the television and yet Mercola post videos (mostly of himself or Luci) all the time. Kinda hypocritical, don't you think?

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

sweet melissa — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:13:01 GMT

I understand that the glowing box can be evil, at one point in my childhood I remember my father grabbing ours and throwing it out the door and into the yard!! We didn't have a TV for a few years after that! But I also think that by monitoring the content it can be very educational event for those under 3. My 2 1/2 year old daughter gets an hour and a half of TV a day but it is mostly DVD like baby einstein, math circus, or word factory. On occation I will let her watch sesame street or it's a Big world. At 2 1/2 she can count to 30, knows all her letters and their sounds and has started sounding out simple words. She gets plenty of exercise, event in front of the TV as she can't sit still when she watches it because she get to excited and prances around or runs up to me to make sure I just saw what she just saw! I really believe the TV problem is really a parenting problem, if you make sure your children are watching wholesome and educating shows, and that they are getting plenty of exercise as well then a couple of hours of T.V could actually be good. As for radiation or electromagnetic waves I have heard that the new high definition and plasma screens can be bad but haven't heard anything about the older TV, witch is what I have. To be on the safe side I have a line on my living room floor that my daughter is not aloud to cross when watching T.V. so she stays at lest 6 feet away from it. I still remember my mom saying " your going to fry your eye balls" when ever she caught me sitting to close!

re: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby Away From the TV!

JL — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:31:57 GMT

Any means of information is filled with junk, be it books, TV, internet etc...
Hopefully 20% of the info has some value and 80% is worthless. Problem with TV is it takes no skill to watch it.