I suspect, when you've visited the home of new parents proudly showing off their beautiful new baby girl or boy, you may have noticed an annoying TV set blaring in the background. And a fussy baby...

Thanks to the intrusiveness of the TV into our daily lives, the sleep patterns of children under age 3 are being disrupted big time, according to a new study. So much so, 27 percent of them had a harder time getting to bed at night and more than a third failed to get naps on a regular schedule.

Here's why, based on the increasing amount of TV babies ''watched'' during the course of the study:

• Infants (ages 4-11 months): Less than an hour a day.
• Toddlers (12-23 months): About 90 minutes a day.
• Children: (24-35 months): More than two hours a day.

No wonder researchers made some of the same recommendations I have, which include getting that TV out of your child's bedroom. That's especially important, considering a Kaiser Family Foundation study found 30 percent of kids under age 3 have a TV in their bedrooms!

Symbolizing the ''do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do'' approach of many parents, however, adults claim they're concerned about the amount of TV their kids watch, but less than a quarter of them do anything about it.

Pediatrics, Vol. 116, No. 4, October 2005: 851-856

Yahoo News October 3, 2005