Truth About Baby Einstein

That`s a really funny article - thanks for posting it.
North Americans (esp. Americans) love to take people to court:)
I read the article several times but failed to really get any real information from it. What, parents all of a sudden want their money back from Baby Einstein because they finally believe the scores of research that says watching tv is bad for babies? Because they had the `audacity` to use the word `educational` to describe their videos?
Just because they`re on the tv screen, that automatically negates any possibility of being educated? Seeing shapes and colours and hearing the names of animals and other things gives babies an attention deficit disorder when they turn 7?
Or are parents really p&%$"# off because their dvd babysitter failed to produce a real Einstein? And how could they possibly know the videos failed to imrove the baby`s intellect? They would have no way to measure this, actually.
I don`t know... I`ve got a bunch of the videos. I think they`re pretty cool, but my son doesn`t care so much about them and would rather watch Harry the Bunny on BabyFirst TV.
I like what I have seen of In the Night Garden. I agree that it seems a bit silly to use non-words in a pre-school kids` show, but the non-words and characters are admittedly pretty cute.
I think my son`s favourite though, is Jon and Kate Plus Eight. I don`t know why....;)
 
Shenzhennifer - I agree with your sentiment re the use of "educational" - I don't see the issue there either. Surely no-one really expected that watching the DVDs would turn their child into a genius.

Laughed when I saw your son's favourite - hope he will enjoy "Kate plus Eight" just as much since they have now split!!
 
My son also loved Baby Einstein - don't see anything wrong with them.

At 22 months, my son loves Hi-5 and Blues Clues. He likes Little Einsteins too. He used to love Teletubbies and In the Night Garden on CBeebies, but it's strange that they don't really speak English.

The under 2 policy doesn;t seem realistic at all especially when your flights home are 15+ hours long.
 
Hope people get their money back

False advertising. Hope people get their money back. We don't have TV in our household. Actually, we get a sports channel (about to expire) and few news channels. But my son, age 2.5 can't watch TV. We do not allow it.

He's watched very very little. Mostly at other people's when it's on during a playdate, but usually, he is not so interested as he was not trained to watch it.

He's seen some on the airplane, 2x he saw Finding Nemo (in the past 3 months), and 2 episodes of a Beatrix Potter BBC production. Other than that, some youtube lego bike safety videos, Obama speeches, a session of gymnastics, maybe an hour total of football with his dad. We're not big TV watchers. He's not therefore, interested.

I think it's about parental habits. If you watch TV, your kid watches it.
 
When the kids aren't really watching the TV, then I'd switch it off. Since all that extra stimulation in the background is possibly what contributes to attentional problems in kids. I'm no expert but i've discovered my kids are quite happy just playing when i turn it off.
 
I was discussing this today with a friend:

How does Disney decide who to reimburse? Do they set a sort of baby genius standard?
If your child can identify shapes, no refund.
If your child can say `dog`, no refund.
If your child can identify 3 out of 4 colours, no refund.
If your child can identify 2 out of 4 animals, partial refund.

(Damn you Disney, my child seen all your videos and he still ain`t no genius! Gimme my money back!)
 
my girls watched no DVD/TV till they were 2 years old and now watch 15 to 20 minutes of DVD a day (they are 3 next week). We don't put the TV on when they are at home.

Sure the downside means you have to keep them 'entertained' but it also means, my girls pick up books and 'read' them and play and run around and do the things children are meant to do.

They enjoy those few minutes of DVD per day and don't demand more during the day, they'd rather play!

We use DVDs because there are no ads!! Also we choose educational ones (baby learns mandarin, Elmo's world) etc.

My pediatrician told me when they were 4 months old that DVDs like Baby Einstein were making outrageous claims and advised me not to let my girls watch TV till 2 years old, so we listened to his advice.

I personally always thought Baby Einstein was like visual acid hahahahahahahahaha :haha:
 
like i said previously, if your children turn into vegetables in front of the tv, by all means, turn it off. however, not all children do, mine often pay little attention to the tv and stop to actually watch in little titbits.
 
Realistically, even if you could hold back TV for the first child, how could you do it for the second? The second will watch whatever the first watches. Children only get to watch however much the parents tolerate them watching.
 
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