Q: Doctor I am in love with your page. Thank you for all the inspiring words that you use to nourish us daily. Thank you so much.

I have a baby of 3 weeks old, but my question is that I want to know the rightful age for a baby to be allowed to watch television. She will always stare at it but I want to know is she already seeing. Secondly, is it right to sit my baby at this stage. Thank you

A: Thank you so much for your kind words. It does make me happy and fulfilled to know that what I do on this page is useful. Some days when I am exhausted and only thinking about hitting my bed, the very fact that some people are waiting for my daily post, gives me the extra push to go ahead and post.
Now, to your questions…very interesting ones!

At birth, baby sees blurry images only and by the 1st month, he’s able to focus and indeed by 3 months, can recognize familiar faces. When should my child start watching TV? The jury is still out on this one. The American Academy of Paediatrics has a strict guideline that recommends no TV viewing (whether the child is actively watching and even when the child is not watching and TV is just background noise) for children less than 2 years old and after this age, TV viewing should be restricted to one or two hours daily. It is thought that the fleeting images and vibrancy of the colours, makes children expect same in real life and makes them have short attention span. Instead of TV, parents should spend time interacting with their children, reading to them and playing with them. This helps them develop better. On the other hand, some other paediatricians argue that not all TV programs are created equal and that there are some that actually help parents interact with their children. However, the time should be monitored and limited.

The worry about too much TV time is that it can lead to obesity as children go out to play less and perhaps, snack mindlessly in front of the TV. It also exposes children to violence, behavioural problems and poor academic performance.

So, practically speaking, how does this play out? Limit as much as possible, TV time. If you grew up during my days, this wasn’t even an issue as TV stations opened by 4pm and had little or nothing to offer children grin emoticon And so we had to learn to amuse ourselves constructively with building blocks/bricks, reading novels etc. You can do a mix of these with your baby. Let him interact with his world using bricks etc. If you choose to let your child watch some TV, look for educational programs and watch with your baby and talk him/her through it.

Should you put your 3 weeks old baby in a sitting position? No. Baby needs to achieve head and neck control before he can sit and generally, it’s ideal to leave your baby well alone and not put them into positions that they can’t get into or out of by themselves. This essentially means that baby’s development will progress, usually in a predictable manner, with absolutely no help from you! So, enjoy your baby and try not to put a timetable to his development. If any aspect of his development appears delayed, feel free to see his doctor but don’t develop an unrealistic calendar for him based on ‘in our family, that’s how we do it’ or ‘other kids his age are doing that’.

I hope this helps.

Have a great night, y’all grin emoticon