Turn off the boob tube
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/Turn+boob+tube/5585262/story.html
Tasha Kheiriddin, National Post · Oct. 21, 2011
Sometimes, the biggest news is that which hits closest to home. Between all the major stories this week - shipbuilding contracts in Canada, a general strike in Greece, the killing of Muammar Gaddafi - one story stood out that has nothing to do with politics, but everything to do with what's most important to this writer: The well-being of children.
The story was the release of a report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommending that kids under the age of two don't watch television. This isn't the first time the AAP has issued this directive, but it now includes new warnings about the effect on sleep: "Although parents perceive a televised program to be a calming sleep aid, some programs actually increase bedtime resistance, delay the onset of sleep, cause anxiety about falling asleep, and shorten sleep duration. Specifically, in children younger than three years, television viewing is associated with irregular sleep schedules."
As the parent of a two-yearold, I couldn't agree more. I've made my daughter Zara's life completely TV-free as a result. Friends routinely point out the irony of this, since I host a television show for a living. I offer two retorts: First, that toddlers aren't interested in political affairs programming and, second, that TV is detrimental to sleep because it overstimulates the developing brain.
Why so militant? Besides the evidence, I based my decision on personal experience. Shortly after Zara turned one, I introduced her to what I thought were cute and educational videos on my laptop: Baby Einstein songs, nursery rhyme cartoons, music videos for kids by the Wiggles and Gummi Bears. In total, no more than 10 minutes a day; I figured it was a way to keep her briefly entertained, without overdoing it.
Boy, was I wrong. Within a couple of weeks, all Zara would ask for were the videos. When she caught a cold, the only thing that would pacify her was watching them, needless to say for more than the original 10 minutes. Within a couple of months, her previously perfect nighttime sleep was totally out of whack. The nadir came when we ended up in the ER of the local hospital, in the middle of the night, with her screaming for the Gummi Bears at the top her lungs. I thought she had lost her mind or was having a seizure. Nothing would calm her down.
In desperation, I did the only thing a responsible parent could do: I lied. Zara was told that the videos were "broken," the computer couldn't play them anymore. One day of tantrums subsided into a week of cold turkey, after which her sleep returned to normal and she stopped asking for the offending imagery.
The experience left me highly disturbed, not only because I had become severely sleep deprived, but because of the prevalence of TV watching and use of electronic media by children all around me. Most of my friends let their little kids watch TV, or play with electronic toys. One has a toddler with serious sleep issues, who watches at least half an hour of The Backyardigans a day. Another lets his daughter play videos on his iPhone. I feel like a Grinch telling people this may be bad for their kids. After all, there's nothing a parent hates more than another parent's righteous preaching.
And who among us didn't watch TV as a child? I started at the age of four. Sesame Street and the Friendly Giant were the only programs our black and white set could pick up, since we couldn't afford cable. My mother tells me that I adored Rusty, Jerome and the rest of the crew. By that age, however, I was able to process the shows I was watching, slept normally and had enough other pastimes to keep me busy and not hooked on the tube.
No parent would willingly hurt their kids - in fact, many think TV is educational (another notion the AAP report disputes). But messing with sleep can cause all sorts of problems, from stunted growth to slow language development, not to mention turning both kids and parents into crabby zombies. And with the prevalence of ADD, ADHD and other assorted hyperactivity acronyms, you have to wonder if overstimulating young brains isn't causing serious long-term damage to our children's health.
So parents, at the risk of preaching, do your tots a favour and turn off the TV until they're old enough to appreciate it. Ships and Libya may make the headlines, but in this case, we should be reading the finer print.
tjk@tashakheiriddin. com