Phew.

Arianna is back to napping. At least 2 very long naps a day. Now, instead of rocking her to sleep, which takes longer and longer as she gets older, I put her on her belly. She usually fusses and little and passes right now. Lately she coos herself to sleep. It's pretty funny, sometimes it will go on for up to 15 minutes or so. Here are 2 videos of her making her little noises.


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Another thing, she loves to stare at the TV. There are so many pictures of her where she is gazing so peacefully, and it's because there TV is on in the background. I try to turn it off as much as possible when she is awake. I am pretty sure that Jeremy doesn't, haha. The reason I bring this up is because we had a meeting at work a few weeks ago and this topic was discussed at great lengths. I always knew that kids weren't supposed to watch any TV at all if they are under 2 years of age, but I never really knew why. I know that Arianna isn't actually watching the shows, it's obviously just the light and sounds that she likes, and I don't blame her. Before I sum up everything I learned in my meeting, let me add that I got 4 e-mails from various people/coworkers a few weeks ago about the nationwide recall on Baby Einstein DVD's. Not as good for babies as everyone thought. I always thought they were cute. They play catchy little songs and show chickens and firetrucks and other random objects on the screen. So, at this meeting, this is what I learned :

-more likely to have delayed language skills

-TV overstimulates the infant brain

-Time in front of a TV takes away from time when baby could be interacting with others/toys/etc. (come on though, we all know it's not possible to play with and interact with your baby for all of their waking hours, especially working Mom's who have to shower and get presentable looking)

-adult words are almost completely eliminated when the TV is on in the room and for every hour it's on, children hear something like 500-1000 less words from adults..this explains the correlation to the language delays

-linked to ADHD (so are a lot of things)

These two excerpts came from the e-mails that were sent to me

TV watching "rewires" an infant’s brain, says Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis lead researcher and director of the Child Health Institute at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Wash. The damage shows up at age 7 when children have difficulty paying attention in school. "In contrast to the way real life unfolds and is experienced by young children, the pace of TV is greatly sped up." says Christakis. His research appears in the April 2004 issue of Pediatrics. Quick scene shifts of video images become "normal," to a baby "when in fact, it’s decidedly not normal or natural." Christakis says. Exposing a baby’s developing brain to videos may overstimulate it, causing permanent changes in developing neural pathways.


"Even a child playing with its own fingers has the neural patterning that comes from bending, flexing, stretching and grasping. Scientists tell us that the brain develops in completely unique ways between birth and three years. As a kiddie viddie baby sits "mesmerized", neural paths are not being created. This is crucial brain development that stops by age three."

WOW. There was so much more too, but I really don't remember it all and I kind of feel like I am writing a research paper, haha. So, I feel a little guilty. Not that Ari is parked in front of a TV all the time, but all the material we were given said even small amounts of time in front of the TV can be detrimental. I will say that it was pretty nice to be able to set her bumbo seat on the floor with the TV within her view, and know that I could go put my makeup on, make the bed, take the dogs out to pee, etc. I guess I will be trying even harder now to keep her from watching it. It's such a good babysitter though haha..I am sure it will be even harder when she is 1-2 and LOVES cartoons. Oh well, at least I learned something useful at work, that I can apply to my own life. Even though it's kind of depressing.